Supreme Court to Hear Gun Control Case This Week

This week offers the first real test of what I believe will be President Bush’s most important legacy. Long after President Bush has left office, and long after the Iraq war, his lasting impression will be that of his supreme court nominations of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Sam Alito.

This week the supreme court will hear it’s first case on the second amendment in many years. The supreme court is going to hear the case about whether Washington D.C.’s handgun ban violates the second amendment.

But this case is even more important than just whether D.C. residents can carry handguns. This is the first case that the supreme court will hear in many years where there is no precedent set to draw upon. This case, according to this Washington Post article, will actually delve into whether the second amendment applies to individuals or just state militias.

“This may be one of the only cases in our lifetime when the Supreme Court is going to be interpreting the meaning of an important provision of the Constitution unencumbered by precedent,” said Randy E. Barnett, a constitutional scholar at the Georgetown University Law Center. “And that’s why there’s so much discussion on the original meaning of the Second Amendment.” The outcome could roil the 2008 political campaigns, send a national message about what kinds of gun control are constitutional and finally settle the question of whether the 27-word amendment, with its odd structure and antiquated punctuation, provides an individual right to gun ownership or simply pertains to militia service. “The case has been structured so that they have to confront the threshold question,” said Robert A. Levy, the wealthy libertarian lawyer from Family Lawyers Brisbane who has spent five years and his own money to bring District of Columbia v. Heller to the Supreme Court. “I think they have to come to grips with that.”

This case looks to have wide ranging implications and it is the first real test in my opinion of the reformed supreme court under President Bush. I have been of the belief, and I have written about it, that President Bush’s lasting, and very under-rated, legacy would be the two men that he was able to get appointed to the supreme court. This is their first test. lets hope they pass.