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Supreme Court—Second Amendment applies to all States
In June of 2008, the United States Supreme Court, in District of Columbia v. Heller, held that the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution is an individual right, and the Court struck down the DC ban on handguns. However, the Heller decision did not, specifically, address whether or not the Second Amendment of the United States applies to the states and not just “federal enclaves.”
The Illinois State Constitution specifically states, “…the right of the individual citizen to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed,” but the Seventh District Court of Appeals in Chicago upheld Chicago’s complete firearms ban, stating the individual right to bear arms is, “not an adequate basis for lawsuits attacking local gun ordinances.” On June 28 of this year, in MacDonald v. Chicago, the Supreme Court decided the Second Amendment’s guarantee of the individual right to keep and bear arms extends to all states.
Chicago’s gun ban is being replaced by a litany of onerous licensing, training, registration, and many other requirements to keep law-abiding citizens vulnerable to armed criminals. Some aspects are even more restrictive than the existing Chicago gun ban. Mayor Daley forced an emergency vote on the new ordinance on July 2, and Chicago aldermen dutifully lined up and voted in favor 45-0, almost all without even reading the ordinance.
Although the Heller and MacDonald Supreme Court decisions establish a legal beachhead in the ongoing battle over gun rights, it will take decades of legal and political battles before the basic right of armed self defense guaranteed by the Second Amendment becomes recognized adequately throughout America. The Heller and MacDonald decisions will, eventually, have far reaching consequences in Chicago, Illinois, California, and other entrenched anti-gun cities and states, but residents of Indiana and Fort Wayne will be largely unaffected.
The Indiana State Constitution, as with the Illinois State Constitution, recognizes the individual right to keep and bear arms. However, Indiana upholds that constitutional provision; while Illinois violates it. Indiana is one of the most gun-friendly states, but neighboring Illinois is the opposite.
Congressman Mike Pence, praising the MacDonald decision as making Indiana residents even safer, said, “In its ruling today, the Supreme Court has affirmed a fundamental point of federalism: No state has the right to legislate away the blood-bought Constitutional right of every law-abiding American to protect their person, their family, and their liberty.”
Both Heller and MacDonald are landmark decisions; however, they were both 5-4 and could be overturned with the installation of additional liberal, anti-gun justices. For example, Justice Sotomayor, in her confirmation hearings stated that Heller is “settled law,” and, “I understand the individual right fully that the Supreme Court recognized in Heller.” However, in the MacDonald case, Justice Sotomayor did a complete reversal by joining a blistering dissent and calling for the Heller decision to be overturned!
Now, Obama has nominated an even stronger anti-gun candidate for the Supreme Court: Elena Kagan. It is likely she will be confirmed, and it will take only one additional anti-gun Supreme Court Justice to change the balance and for both the Heller and MacDonald decisions to be jeopardized.
Congressman Pence is correct in saying no state has the right to legislate away the blood-bought Constitutional right to self defense. However, the Supreme Court, with one additional anti-gun member after Kagan, can overturn both Heller and MacDonald and render the Second Amendment meaningless.
We must stay vigilant.
