ANNIE GET YOUR LAWYER -V
Fifth in a Series of Five
Read Fourth in the Series What the Court Said
In 1931, the Supreme Court concluded that the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process clause applied to the states the First Amendment’s ban on free press prohibitions, a stricture that had until then applied only to Congress.
WHAT THE COURT SAID - IV
Fourth in a Series of Five
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Understanding the Second Amendment
If in District of Columbia v. Heller, the gun control case, the United States Supreme Court concluded that D.C. cannot ban handguns, it did not say that gun control was unconstitutional. Not even unconstitutional in the District, the only jurisdiction in which Heller, for now, applies.
UNDERSTANDING THE SECOND AMENDMENT - III
Third in a Series of Five
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The Heart of the Case
To grasp aright the Supreme Court’s ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller, the gun control case, you have to know a few of things about the Second Amendment.
THE HEART OF THE CASE - II
Second in a Series of Five
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The Opening Shot
At the heart of the gun control dispute the Supreme Court settled in District of Columbia v. Heller was the meaning of twenty-seven words, three commas, and a period: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
THE OPENING SHOT - I
First in a Series of Five
The Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision that the District of Columbia’s ban on handguns violates the Second Amendment is but the opening shot in a long, and likely to be inconclusive, war of litigation between gun control opponents and advocates.
A Well Regulated Militia: Did the Supreme Court Shoot Itself In the Foot?
Depending upon your interpretation of the Second Amendment the United States Supreme Court is about to make America a more dangerous, or a safer, place.
Before the court are twenty-nine words and three commas: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” How you diagram the sentence determines the amendment’s meaning.
The Second Amendment Goes to Heller
The shoot-out between gun-control forces and gun-rights defenders moves into the Supreme Court when its justices hear oral arguments March 18, 2008, in District of Columbia v. Dick Anthony Heller . They’ll consider whether the Second Amendment guarantees an individual’s right to keep and bear arms or whether it merely protects a collective militia right.
BONG HiTS 4 JESUS
The way Clarence Thomas sees it, “As originally understood, the Constitution does not afford students a right to free speech in public schools.” In the old days, says the associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, student liberties were mostly limited to sitting down and keeping quiet, and that was good for them. He was writing last June in Morse et al. v. Frederick, the “BONG HiTS 4 JESUS” case.
