Free Republic

You can click the link toward the bottom of C-Span's home page via the above link, or just click this: rtsp://video.c-span.org/archive/sc/sc031808_2amendment.rm

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - x DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, : ET AL., : Petitioners : v. : No. 07-290 DICK ANTHONY HELLER. : - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - x Washington, D.C. Tuesday, March 18, 2008 The above-entitled matter came on for oral argument before the Supreme Court of the United States at 10:06 a.m. APPEARANCES: WALTER DELLINGER, ESQ., Washington, D.C.; on behalf of the Petitioners. GEN. PAUL D....

Since the District of Columbia first instituted its ban on handguns, there has been only one year (1985) that the homicide rate in the city fell below what it was in 1976. Worse, in 15 of the 29 years since the ban went into effect, D.C. had either the first or secomd highest murder rate among the nation's largest 50 cities. In 2003, D.C. special police officer Dick Heller joined five other residents and sued to challenge the handgun ban. Heller carries a handgun while on duty as a guard at the Federal Judicial Center and wants to possess one...

MAJORITY AGREEMENT: A majority of Supreme Court justices appeared ready Tuesday to say that Americans have a "right to keep and bear arms" that goes beyond the Second Amendment's reference to service in a militia. NO CONSENSUS: But they appeared less ready to agree on the case they were arguing — whether Washington's 32-year-old handgun ban can stand and how to evaluate other gun control laws. THEIR WORDS: "What is reasonable about a total ban on possession?" Chief Justice John Roberts asked. Is it "unreasonable for a city with a very high crime rate ... to say no handguns here?"...

Dick Heller is the Federal security guard who lives and works in the District of Columbia. He's the named original plaintiff in the most significant constitutional case to reach the Supreme Court in several decades and the most significant Second Amendment case since the signing. After 90 minutes spent watching lawyers and justices parsing facts, laws and the Constitution, when Mr. Heller was asked by a reporter after the hearing why he took his case all the way to SCOTUS he had an answer, which I'll closely paraphrase: I'm a federal guard. I carry a gun at work to protect...

WASHINGTON - Americans have a right to own guns, Supreme Court justices declared Tuesday in a historic and lively debate that could lead to the most significant interpretation of the Second Amendment since its ratification two centuries ago. Governments have a right to regulate those firearms, a majority of justices seemed to agree. But there was less apparent agreement on the case they were arguing: whether Washington's ban on handguns goes too far. The justices dug deeply into arguments on one of the Constitution's most hotly debated provisions as demonstrators shouted slogans outside. Guns are an American right, argued one...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Americans have a right to own guns, Supreme Court justices declared Tuesday in a historic and lively debate that could lead to the most significant interpretation of the Second Amendment since its ratification two centuries ago. Governments have a right to regulate those firearms, a majority of justices seemed to agree. But there was less apparent agreement on the case they were arguing: whether Washington's ban on handguns goes too far. The justices dug deeply into arguments on one of the Constitution's most hotly debated provisions as demonstrators shouted slogans outside. Guns are an American right, argued...

NEWS RELEASE INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS WON IN TODAY’S SUPREME COURT HEARING, SAYS SAF BELLEVUE, WA – Today’s oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of District of Columbia v Heller produced a clear victory for the individual citizen’s right to keep and bear arms, the Second Amendment Foundation said. “We are confident,” said SAF founder Alan Gottlieb, “that the high court will hand down an opinion that affirms the Second Amendment means what it says.

Oral arguments before the Supreme Court are a nasty business. Today the Supremes (depending on their disposition) heard or ignored arguments in the Heller Case, the Washington D.C. gun ban. The consensus among all of us who listened to the arguments is “we still don’t know how this is going to pan out.” Crap. Ginsberg, in her growing senile dementia, brought-up state bans on machine guns as a proxy for the ‘reasonable’ ban angle. Sorry guys. The fight has just begun and will last long after they have shoveled dirt on our faces. From the oral arguments and some insights...

McCain weighs in on gun case at Supreme Court As the Supreme Court hears oral arguments this morning on whether the Second Amendment guarantees citizens the right to keep firearms or whether that right is tied to membership in a militia, one presidential candidate has weighed in on the issue, signing onto a friend of the Court brief. Sen. John McCain, who is traveling overseas this week as part of an Armed Services congressional delegation, issued a statement calling District of Columbia v. Heller “a landmark case for all Americans who believe as I do that the Second Amendment guarantees...

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court appeared ready Tuesday to endorse the view that the Second Amendment gives individuals the right to own guns, but was less clear about whether to retain the District of Columbia's ban on handguns. The justices were aware of the historic nature of their undertaking, engaging in an extended 98-minute session of questions and answers that could yield the first definition of the meaning of the Second Amendment in its 216 years. A key justice, Anthony Kennedy, left little doubt about his view when he said early in the proceedings that the Second Amendment gives "a...

Gun Control and the Second Amendment : Finally, Supreme Court to Weigh in on the Right to Bear Arms Robert A. Levy, Goldwater Institute Daily Email, March 18, 2008 A year ago, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued a blockbuster opinion that overturned a gun control regulation on Second Amendment grounds for the first time. Today, the U.S. Supreme Court will review that historic decision with oral argument in District of Columbia v. Heller. Meanwhile, an avalanche of 67 amicus briefs, posted at www.dcguncase.com, has produced perhaps the nation’s best repository of Second Amendment legal scholarship....

Supreme Court Gun Case Draws Protesters By MARK SHERMAN – 1 hour ago WASHINGTON (AP) — Advocates of gun rights and opponents of gun violence demonstrated outside the Supreme Court Tuesday while inside, justices heard arguments over the meaning of the Second Amendment's "right to keep and bear arms." Dozens of protesters mingled with tourists and waved signs saying "Ban the Washington elitists, not our guns" or "The NRA helps criminals and terrorist buy guns." Members of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence chanted "guns kill" as followers of the Second Amendment Sisters and Maryland Shall Issue.Org shouted "more...

http://www.cspan.org/watch/cs_cspan_wm.asp?Cat=TV&Code=CS

Today the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in DC v. Heller, perhaps the most important Second Amendment case in the history of the world. The decision is expected in June. The justices will seek to answer, in their own words Whether the following provisions -- D.C. Code secs. 7 2502.02(a)(4), 22 4504(a), and 7 2507.02 -- violate the Second Amendment rights of individuals who are not affiliated with any state regulated militia, but who wish to keep handguns and other firearms for private use in their homes. Those "provisions" virtually ban handguns and require that long guns be stored...

Today, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case of Heller v. District of Columbia, a suit brought by several D.C. citizens contending that the ban on the possession of operable firearms inside one's home violates the Second Amendment. The Circuit Court of Appeals for D.C. agreed and held the ban to be unconstitutional. However it is decided, Heller is already historic. For the first time in recent memory, the Supreme Court will consider the original meaning of a significant passage of the Constitution unencumbered by its own prior decisions. The majority and dissenting opinions in this case...

Could this photo be a first? It shows a card-carrying member of the MSM shooting a handgun. That's Jan Crawford Greenburg, an ABC News legal correspondent. The clip, pun intended, of Greenburg on the firing range was part of a segment she narrated on today's Good Morning America on a case to be argued before the Supreme Court today. At issue is the District of Columbia's law banning handguns. The case comes before the Supreme Court after the U.S. Court of Appeals for D.C. invalidated the law. The decision is anticipated to be a landmark one since it could be...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court gets to write on a blank slate when it takes up the meaning of the Second Amendment "right to keep and bear arms" and the District of Columbia's ban on handguns. The nine justices have said almost nothing about gun rights, and their predecessors have likewise given no definitive answer to whether the Constitution protects an individual's right to own guns or whether that right is somehow tied to service in a state militia. The case that will be argued Tuesday is among the most closely watched of the term, drawing 68 briefs from...

The United States Supreme Court has decided only one significant case involving the Second Amendment, and that was almost 70 years ago. Next week, the Court will return to the issue when it hears arguments in District of Columbia v. Heller. This is a test case brought by a D.C. special police officer who carries a gun while on duty. Under D.C.'s extremely restrictive gun control laws, he is forbidden to keep a handgun, or an operable rifle or shotgun, in his home. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit held that these laws violate the Second...

WASHINGTON - Robert Levy has never owned a handgun and has no burning desire to own one now. He hasn't been a Washington resident since he was a teen in the 1950s. But for six years, the wealthy attorney has carefully plotted a legal challenge to Washington's strict ban on handgun ownership, a case now before the Supreme Court. The Florida resident helped hand-pick the plaintiffs involved and is paying the legal fees himself. Why all the effort? Levy says he is driven to defend constitutional rights he believes are being trampled by the District of Columbia's strict ban on...