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Justice Stevens: 'Maybe You Have Some Kind of Constitutional Right to a Cell Phone...'
CNS News.com ^ | 10/16/2012 | Melanie Hunter

Posted on 10/17/2012 7:11:14 AM PDT by VRWCmember

Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, speaking at an event hosted by the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence’s Legal Action Project, said Monday said that having “some kind of constitutional right to a cell phone with a predialed 911 at your bedside might be better protection than a gun.”

“I’m not sure I actually have captured the entire question, but it does occur to me that one thing that I thought about from time to time is that maybe you have some kind of constitutional right to have a cell phone with a predialed 911 number at your bedside, and that might provide you with a little better protection than a gun, which you’re not used to using,” Stevens said.

Jonathan Lowy, Brady Center Legal Action Project director, read a question from the audience, saying: “The Supreme Court held that the 2nd Amendment assures our right to have a handgun in the home for self-defense as you say. This question’s asked: ‘That protects only gun owners. What about those who don’t have guns? Surely they have a right of self-defense. Instead of relying on the 2nd Amendment and dealing with gun laws, wouldn’t it be more rational to rely directly on the right we all have to self-defense. What are your thoughts on that?’

Stevens was appointed to the high court in 1975 by President Gerald Ford. He retired in 2010. He is considered the third-longest serving justice.


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: banglist; dial911anddie; electionsmatter; supremecourt; youwillnotdisarmus
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To: VRWCmember

So you have a right to a cell phone to call police. But you don’t have a right to protection by the police.


21 posted on 10/17/2012 7:25:18 AM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: VRWCmember

Is Stevens’ saying it would be constitutional for the Supreme Court to ban ownership of cell phones?


22 posted on 10/17/2012 7:25:32 AM PDT by vbmoneyspender
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To: VRWCmember

DOTARD, n. - A man whose intellect is impaired by age; one in his second childhood.


23 posted on 10/17/2012 7:26:31 AM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy (DIY Bumper Sticker: "THREE TIMES,/ DEMOCRATS/ REJECTED GOD")
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To: VRWCmember

All Americans have a Constitutional right to own a cell phone and they also have a Constitutional right to keep it wherever they want, including on the bedside table.

What Americans do NOT have is a Constitutional right to demand someone else pay for said cell phone.


24 posted on 10/17/2012 7:28:44 AM PDT by John Valentine (Deep in the Heart of Texas)
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To: VRWCmember
“I’m not sure I actually have captured the entire question, but it does occur to me that one thing that I thought about from time to time is that maybe you have some kind of constitutional right to have a cell phone with a predialed 911 number at your bedside,
....and that might provide you with a little better protection than a gun, which you’re not used to using,” Stevens said.

******************

You have seconds to decide....

Seconds to act & protect your loved ones....
...Perhaps seconds to live...

And the 9-1-1 response is only minutes away...

Hizzoner needs a reality check...

25 posted on 10/17/2012 7:30:18 AM PDT by Wings-n-Wind (The main things are the plain things!)
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To: Steely Tom
What I was really thinking is, you have the right to eat, for example. That doesn't mean somebody has the obligation to feed you.

You have the right to a weapon for use in self-defense. That doesn't mean that someone is obliged to give you that weapon.

26 posted on 10/17/2012 7:31:08 AM PDT by Oberon (Big Brutha Be Watchin'.)
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To: VRWCmember

Duck and cover!
27 posted on 10/17/2012 7:32:06 AM PDT by ari-freedom
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To: VRWCmember
..it does occur to me that one thing that I thought about from time to time is that maybe you have some kind of constitutional right to have a cell phone with a predialed 911 number at your bedside, and that might provide you with a little better protection than a gun, which you’re not used to using,” Stevens said.

This is the sort of constitutional genius that Justice Stevens utilized in his egregious tenure on the SCOTUS. According to this, and every other liberal mind on the Court, if one cannot justify a position with the Constitution, make something up by semantic misdirection.

Does Justice Stevens feel safer with his Secret Service detail armed with only cell phones? I'll bet those agents in the Secret Service use their cell phones and communication devices much more often than they use their guns. Does that give them a better Constitutional right to protection by cell phone than to bear arms?

28 posted on 10/17/2012 7:32:37 AM PDT by Thommas (The snout of the camel is in the tent..)
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To: VRWCmember

My guns never have a dead battery, a weak signal, and work a lot faster than 911


29 posted on 10/17/2012 7:32:57 AM PDT by FrankR (They will become our ultimate masters the day we surrender the 2nd Amendment.)
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To: VRWCmember
I guess his "briefs" were on too tight....maybe he should change to boxers?

Pun intended....hahahaha!

30 posted on 10/17/2012 7:34:40 AM PDT by thingumbob (I'm a bitter clinger...I dare you to take my gun)
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To: VRWCmember

REALLY!!??

If I don’t want a cell phone, do I have a constiutional right to a conventional PHONE... like the one I have had all my life?

Will the government pick up the tab on that??

Because I would use IT, if I needed to make a 911 call!!??? Isn’t that the same thing?


31 posted on 10/17/2012 7:35:14 AM PDT by SMARTY ("The man who has no inner-life is a slave to his surroundings. "Henri Frederic Amiel)
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To: VRWCmember

I don’t ever want to hear about the Harvard, Yale, Princeton Law graduates being elitist thinkers. This is just the kind of shit-for-brains thinking has given the United States so many insane interpretations of the Constitution.


32 posted on 10/17/2012 7:37:04 AM PDT by Texas Songwriter (,)
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To: SMARTY
If I don’t want a cell phone, do I have a constiutional right to a conventional PHONE... like the one I have had all my life?

Good point, and with your land line, the 911 dispatcher can immediatly pinpoint your address so that the armed response is only a few minutes away - while a cell phone call will take several minutes for the signal to be triangulated and your location identified so the armed response will be several additional minutes away.

33 posted on 10/17/2012 7:40:13 AM PDT by VRWCmember
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To: VRWCmember

This is Satire guys...


34 posted on 10/17/2012 7:43:20 AM PDT by Freedom4US
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To: VRWCmember

The type of response you would expect from a man with government provided police protection.


35 posted on 10/17/2012 7:43:30 AM PDT by soupbone1
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To: VRWCmember
So, every time I hear a noise in the middle of the night I should dial 911? Every time the stinkin cat or dog knocks something over, and it makes a noise, we should dial 911?
What idiots!!
36 posted on 10/17/2012 7:43:43 AM PDT by deweyfrank
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To: VRWCmember
Stevens may be on to something here. Perhaps EVERY American *does* have a constitutional right to own a cell phone...


37 posted on 10/17/2012 7:45:13 AM PDT by C210N ("ask not what the candidate can do for you, ask what you can do for the candidate" (Breitbart, 2012))
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To: harpseal; TexasCowboy; nunya bidness; AAABEST; Travis McGee; Squantos; wku man; SLB; ...
Holy God. If anyone had any doubts previously about how these leftist SCOTUS 'justices' just make it up as they go, you can toss those doubts out the window now. Just like this asshat is doing with The Constitution that he supposedly swore and oath to affirm and uphold.

Click the Gadsden flag for pro-gun resources!

38 posted on 10/17/2012 7:47:00 AM PDT by Joe Brower (Sheep have three speeds: "graze", "stampede" and "cower".)
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To: C210N

I like that; except it wouldn’t be Nokia. Nokia’s north Texas plant fired all employees who obtained CHL permits, and used status as a CHL holder as a disqualification for hiring.


39 posted on 10/17/2012 7:49:59 AM PDT by VRWCmember
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To: VRWCmember

The Average response time to a 911 call is 23 minutes.

The Average response time of a .357 Magnum is 1400 feet per second...


40 posted on 10/17/2012 7:51:25 AM PDT by desertfreedom765
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