Word: scalias
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...heavyweight tussle, but their victory comes by way of a nuanced decision. The ruling, which affirms a federal appeals court decree, makes clear that individual ownership rights are limited. "It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose," Scalia wrote. (See pictures of America's gun culture...
...Court's decision indicated regulation of guns, as opposed to the banning of handguns, is entirely permissible," says Dennis Henigan, vice president for law and policy at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. "The ruling gives a constitutional green light to a wide range of gun restrictions." Scalia said the Court's decision "should not be taken to cast doubt" on many existing restrictions against gun possession, including handgun possession by felons and the mentally ill, possession in schools and government buildings and rules governing commercial arms sale. Says Henigan: "I don't think that there is any federal...
...ruling can be applied to their jurisdictions. Ultimately, he says, "the answer is going to be yes, but it's going to take one big case or a series of smaller ones to establish." Randy Barnett, a professor of legal theory at Georgetown University Law Center, notes that while Scalia's opinion "telegraphs" his belief that the ruling will apply to states, "that's not what this case is about. It's about gun bans, not [gun control] regulations." Neither expects that to deter pro-gun forces from using the Court's ruling as ammunition. Both Tushnet and Barnett agree...
...questions, the Supreme Court had to grapple with the Bill of Rights' most puzzling item. The Amendment reads: "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." Its confounding syntax aside, Scalia said the fact that the Amendment is framed in a military context is "unremarkable" given the era's martial climate. His argument, says Northwestern Law School professor John McGinnis, is rooted in the judicial philosophy of originalism: "When there really isn't clear precedent, you look at what this meant...
...dissenting opinions, Justice John Paul Stevens called Scalia's argument "strained and unpersuasive." He also blistered the majority for its expansive reading of the Amendment's "ambiguous" text. "Until today, it has been understood that legislatures may regulate the civilian use and misuse of firearms so long as they do not interfere with the preservation of a well-regulated militia," Stevens wrote. "The Court's announcement of a new constitutional right to own and use firearms for private purposes upsets that settled understanding...