Posted on 10/31/2005 8:22:54 AM PST by Dan from Michigan
Second Amendment Tea Leaves for Corrigan, Sykes, Luttig and Alito:
In Re Four Possible Supreme Court Nominees. In the case of Love v. Pepersack, Judge Luttig concurred in an opinion rejecting a section 1983 claim for an erroneous denial of a handgun license by the state of Maryland. Judge Luttig's concurrence stated, in its entirity: "I concur only in the judgment reached by the majority, and I do so only because Gardner v. Baltimore Mayor and City Council, 969 F.2d 63 (4th Cir. 1992), is the law of the circuit." The Gardner case involved a narrow interpretation of substantive due process.
In United States v. Rybar, Judge Alito wrote a blistering dissent from the majority opinion which held that, notwithstanding United States v. Lopez, Congress had the power to use the Interstate Commerce power to prohibit the mere possession of machine guns manufactured after May 1986, even though Congress had made no findings about the effect of such machine guns on interstate commerce. Judge Alito's dissent did not address the majority's assertion that Rybar had no Second Amendment rights because Rybar was not a member of the militia.
Neither case clearly shows Judges Luttig or Alito to support or oppose the Standard Model of the Second Amendment. However, I believe that both opinions suggest that judges Luttig and Alito are, at the least, not hostile to the Second Amendment. Moreover, a generous reading of the Fourteenth Amendment, and a willingness to take Lopez seriously are in themselves good signs for persons who support judicial enforcement of the right to keep and bear arms.
UPDATE: I haven't found anything yet on Karen Williams.
Michigan Supreme Court Justice Maura Corrigan has three notable gun cases, but none sheds direct light on her RKBA views. In a 2004 case, she wrote the majority opinion in a 5-2 decision creating a "good faith" exception to Michigan's exclusionary rule. The case involved a home search that discovered a firearm and marijuana. A robust Fourth Amendment is an important secondary protection for Second Amendment rights, and the Fourth Amendment has been devastated by "good faith" loophole for the exclusionary rule, as I detail in an Akron Law Review article.
Also in 2004, Justice Corrigan joined a majority opinion reversing the conviction of a longtime Michigan gun rights activist who had sold a firearm to undercover police officers in a sting operation. Justice Corrigan agreed that because the defendant had complied with Michigan's laws regarding handgun sales, his actions were not illegal. The decision bodes well for her attitude towards some of the law enforcement abuses and aggressive interpretation of gun control statutes which have too often characterized the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
In 2001, Justice Corrigan was part of 4-3 majority which applied a "strict textualist" interpretation to the Michigan Constitution, thereby negating an attempting to prevent Michigan's Shall Issue concealed handgun licensing law from going into effect. The Michigan Constitution allows petitioners to stop a new statute from going into effect by gathering sufficient petitions to put the statute to a popular vote in a general election. However, the Constitution forbids delaying the implementation of a new statute which has an appropriation therein, and the Michigan licensing law included a one million dollar appropriation for county licensing boards. As Justice Corrigan pointed out, anti-gun advocates still could have petitioned for an initiative to overturn the licensing statute; they were simply barred from preventing the statute from going into effect in the period before the next election.
That's why you're on the margins, and will never be considered for the Supreme Court, Jimmy...my rights aren't dependent upon what you think I NEED.
The two I have bolded are two I find objectionable.
One of the really wonderful things about the internet is that it makes it easy for US to look at the primary source material so we can make informed decisions. Naturally, Moveon wouldn't know about that.
True
Hey.
I eat at ethnic restaurants.
and I am no liberal.
You can't seriously tell me they have no italian restaurants out west?
Over where I live I can't go a block without seeing some kind of new ethnic restaurant.
What was so great about Janice Rogers Brown in comparison with Alito?
Thanks. It looks as if Alito will be the change from a "swing" vote to a solid conservative vote that we have been pushing for many years.
A blood traitor? For not going to St. Louis. Guess what, I haven't been there either. I was born and raised in CT but I'm no Eastern elitist.
You need to put down the crack pipe, FRiend.
Hmmm..... you make yourself sound like a "western elitist" with that post. And who gives a d*mn what kind of ethnic food they have out west? Who made you sole arbiter of those who are "traitors" and those who are not?
What proof can you offer us that Alito is a liberal? You know, aside from just saying he is.
JRB apparently believes the constitutional right of property - means zoning laws are illegal. so my neighbor is free to build a skyscraper next to my house? A toxic waste dump? open an porn shop? Just because they own the property? I don't think so.
Brown is definitely pro-Second Amendment. The strongest case I have seen for Alito, regarding a machine gun possession case, was that he is anti-Commerce clause (certainly, a good thing) but not pro-Second Amendment. My acid test is Second Amendment - if anyone thinks anyone peaceable should be disarmed, I simply have to assume they intend harm.
Rybar is a commerce clause thing and Alito is definitely on the right side of that argument. I haven't been able to find anything on Alito vis a vis an RTKABA being an indivdual right but all indications are that the guy reads the text for what it is and then moves on to original intent if the text is nuanced.
If the Brady group doesn't like Alito, then I like him.
" Thank the Ku Klux Klan. Literally"
I thought it was a reaction to the gangland wars.
I don't do dope and I don't chew rope. My sniffer dog was finding dead bodies before you joined FR, newbie. He found his first when he was 4 months old in September of 2003.
We're currently in Nicaragua looking for bodies or survivors. Can you match that?
My point, and I do have one, was that there are excellent law schools outside of New England. For example: Stanford, Northwestern, George Washington, Brigham Young, Pepperdine, Tulane, and Gonzaga.
An Auburn graduate (let's just say it's me) gets accepted into the Harvard Law School and on the first day of class shows up on campus.
He walks up to the tweed-coated second-year law student in his bib overalls and drawls. "Hey, y'all. Where's the bookstore at?"
The Harvard man is horrified and straightens his club tie and replies, "My good man, this is Haavad. We do not end our sentences with a preposition."
The Auburn graduate replies, "Oh, I apologize. Where's the bookstore at, A$$hole?"
Was he wearing his Sunday-go-to-meeting overalls? ;) And do they have Arby's in Nicaragua?
Thanks for the pings today. The country and the Bill of Rights are infinitely more protected today than they were last week. The freedom hating dems were denouncing Sammy before W was done introducing him. That can only be a good thing. It's a timely thing, too, since the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms act will be appearing in a court really soon. And don't forget Rebecca Peters and their nonesense at the UN. We need the Supreme court straightened out badly since they started citing international law.
It is a good sign.
Newbie? Ha! That the best you can do?
Can I match Nicaragua? Nah, though I've done my stint in the military, thanks very much.
Get over yourself.
Justice Brown towers above just about any potential nominee and was my sole preference for the vacancy. That being said, I am enthusiastically behind this choice.
JRB accordingly makes a swell *nuclear option* alternative for those might insist upon a female replacement for Sandra Day O'Connor...who, of course, herself replaced a male SC justice.
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