Rolling It Out

June 26, 2008
9:45 AM CST

From SCOTUSBlog:

The opinion leaves open the question whether the Second Amendment is incorporated against the States, but strongly suggests it is.  So today’s ruling likely applies equally to State regulation.

I need to point out to my Furring Readers (as well as recent graduates from the public school system) that “incorporation” involves taking a Constitutionally-enumerated freedom and, under the Fourteenth Amendment, making it the supreme law of the land, invalidating any state constitutions or laws which stand in contradiction.

Thus, to use the most famous example, it is not permissible for, say, Florida to maintain the institution of slavery, because the Thirteenth Amendment was “incorporated” against the states, making any of their existing or future laws concerning the ledgality of slavery a moot issue.

Tom Goldstein’s opinion that the majority opinion “strongly suggests” that the Second Amendment is, or should be incorporated under the Fourteenth is based on a little statement in Scalia’s opinion where he notes that “curiously”, the Second is the only Amendment in the Bill of Rights which has not been incorporated against the states—which statement is, quite frankly, an open invitation for someone to challenge individual state laws which contradict the Second’s intent and purpose. (Tremble, Mayor Daley of Chicago, you bastard: your city’s fucking un-Constitutional ban on hadguns is toast.)

And indeed, the NRA, in keeping with their tradition of only betting on a sure thing, have announced that they’ll be filing lawsuits against GFW havens like Chicago and the like, where the law-abiding have to endure the infringement of this particular Constitutional right by agents of the state.

So… let’s get cracking on this most worthy exercise.