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There is very little information that can be gleaned with confidence about the authorship of the remaining opinions from the Term. It does look exceptionally likely that Justice Scalia is writing the principal opinion for the Court in Heller – the D.C. guns case. That is the only opinion remaining from the sitting and he is the only member of the Court not to have written a majority opinion from the sitting. There is no indication that he lost a majority from March. His only dissent from the sitting is for two Justices in Indiana v. Edwards. So, that’s a...

The Supreme Court’s next scheduled opinion day, Monday, June 16, could yield a decision in the landmark Second Amendment case of D.C. v. Heller. My guess is that we’ll see Heller on or after June 23, at the very end of the Term. I guess that simply because Heller is the biggest case of the year, it raises wide-open constitutional issues, and it was argued late in the Term, in mid-March. Either way, here are key points to look for when the opinions arrive. As you’ll see, many of them only come into play if a majority of the Court...

In its first comprehensive look at the Second Amendment right to bear arms, the Supreme Court is expected to rule next week on the constitutionality of Washington, D.C.'s ban on handguns. The District of Columbia's ban is considered the nation's strictest gun-control law. A ruling by the court to strike it down could threaten other gun-control measures across the country, including laws that ban machine guns or assault weapons. Although the Second Amendment was ratified in 1791, the court has never definitively said what it means to have the right to keep and bear arms. The current dispute over gun...

This month, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to decide District of Columbia v. Heller, the most important Second Amendment case in the court's history. More than five years ago, six Washington, D.C., residents challenged the constitutionality of the city's 32-year ban on all functional firearms in the home. If the challenge is successful, it will mean the court has revisited and perhaps reversed United States v. Miller, the second most important Second Amendment case in the court's history. For nearly seven decades, gun controllers and gun rights advocates alike have struggled to apply the murky doctrines propounded by Justice...

The Supreme Court's upcoming decision in a Washington, D.C. handgun ban case could potentially nullify thousands of gun laws on the books. The case stems from a security guard who was denied a request to keep a firearm in his District residence for self-protection.Washington D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty recently said that the District's handgun ban "has saved many lives since 1976 and will continue to do so if allowed to remain in force." How does he measure that? The truth is that murder by handguns has gone up substantially in the District since the handgun ban was passed. I wonder...

Most Americans believe that owning a gun is the right of every citizen. According to a Gallup poll, 73 percent of the U.S. public believe that the Second Amendment guarantees individuals the right to gun ownership. Therefore the Heller decision, which is expected any day now, could play a pivotal role in the 2008 presidential campaign. Former Ohio Secretary of State-turned-pundit Kenneth Blackwell calls it "the Roe v. Wade" of gun rights and suggests that the case (and its results) will ripple beyond District borders to impact "90 million American gun owners." It was six D.C. residents, fed up with...

Tomorrow is Monday, US Supreme Court is expected to hand down more decision with 17 still pending. Will it happen tomorrow? What do you think it might say? Will they take a cheap way out and just uphold the lower court without comment? Will they hand us some unbelievably complicated ruling that will only serve to muddy the waters further? Will it be the golden STFU ruling we need to hand the liberals and the anti-gunner types their collective heads? All bets are on!

The nation's leading gun control group filed a "friend of the court" brief back in January defending the gun ban in Washington, D.C. But with the Supreme Court poised to hand down a potentially landmark decision in the case, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence fully expects to lose. "We've lost the battle on what the Second Amendment means," campaign president Paul Helmke told ABC News. "Seventy-five percent of the public thinks it's an individual right. Why are we arguing a theory anymore? We are concerned about what we can do practically." While the Brady Campaign is waving the...

However, Public Still Favors Stricter Gun Control ROCHESTER, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In anticipation of the U.S. Supreme Court decision concerning the Second Amendment expected at some point this month, The Harris Poll® finds that by a margin of over two to one, more U.S. adults believe that the Second Amendment supports an individual’s right to bear arms. Furthermore, the survey also finds that more of the U.S. public continues to favor stricter gun control. However, concerning the impact on the election, the public seems to be split on which presidential candidate would do a better job handling gun control. These are the...

The Supreme Court is meeting to issue opinions and announce whether it has accepted any new cases. Major cases still undecided include the rights of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, the ban on handguns in Washington, D.C., and whether people convicted of raping children can be given the death penalty. The court's term ends in late June.

May 5th, 2008; Washington Township, NJ FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media Contact: Robert Kreisler In a stunning first-of-its-kind announcement, the New Jersey Coalition for Self Defense (NJCSD) predicts that the Supreme Court Of The United States (SCOTUS) will confirm an individual right interpretation of the 2nd Amendment in Heller vs. DC, foreshadowing an end to decades of acrimonious debate over the meaning of what is widely considered to be a core principle for many Americans. Using an advanced market research method known as a KJ analysis (named after its creator, Kawakita Jiro) a team of five analysts independently reviewed the statements...

The Second Amendment is only 27 words long — the same as this paragraph — yet the United States Supreme Court has never fully explained what the words mean. That may change in June, as could the legal landscape and political strategies of gun-rights advocates. The court that month is expected to rule on the constitutionality of a handgun ban in Washington, D.C. In reviewing the case of District of Columbia v. Heller, a majority of justices have signaled a willingness to accept that the Second Amendment guarantees law-abiding Americans an “individual right” to own firearms — not just the...

Supreme Court Confronts the ‘Right to Bear Arms’  by Stephen P. Halbrook   | View comments |  Print This Post The D.C. gun ban is in big trouble. “That would be an odd ‘right of the people’ if limited to militias,” commented Chief Justice John Roberts in the Supreme Court hearing March 18 in District of Columbia v. Heller. The case concerns whether the District of Columbia’s ban on handguns violates the Second Amendment guarantee that “the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” Referring to the American Revolution, Justice Antonin Scalia noted that “tyrants...

Like everyone, I’m on pins and needles to see the decision, all the speculation is fun but meaningless, but fun. Yes, the Court seemed favorable to an individual right and overturning the D.C. total gun ban, even the lamestream media picked that up. But then you have to think about the Kelo decision (eminent domain) and McCain-Feingold (free-speech ban before an election), and it’s got to worry you. There’s no crystal ball. The biggest problem I see is difficulty the Court faces in recognizing Second Amendment rights to invalidate the D.C. law, and somehow limiting that decision so laws don’t...

It is 1992, and schoolmates Yoshihiro Hattori and Webb Haymaker have been invited to a Halloween party. Yoshi, a 16-year-old exchange student and avid dancer, wears a white tuxedo like John Travolta's in Saturday Night Fever. By mistake, they stop at a house up the block from their destination. No one answers the doorbell. Inside are Rodney and Bonnie Peairs. She opens a side door momentarily, sees the boys, and yells to her husband, "Get the gun." He does (it is a .44 magnum Smith & Wesson revolver) and reopens the door. Yoshi and Webb, by now back at the...

On March 18, 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in District of Columbia v. Heller, a case challenging handgun-control statutes adopted in 1976 in Washington, D.C. The question before the Court is whether the District's prohibition of further registration of handguns, its ban on the carrying of concealed guns, and its mandate that guns kept in homes remain unloaded and either locked or disassembled violate citizens' rights that are guaranteed by the Second Amendment of the Constitution. What we do about handguns is of course a question of public policy. Because of the Second Amendment, it is also...

It is a most dangerous game we’re playing here. The major news outlets seemed to agree with my assessment (and I went out on a limb with that, 12 hours before any of them), that the High Court seemed ready and willing to unequivocally affirm an individual right to keep and bear arms. [NOTE: see my pre-game and post-game eyewitness reports here: http://www.PageNine.org] But it doesn’t end there -- it barely starts there. If the Court affirms, does that mean Gun Laws of America (listing every federal gun law, with plain-English descriptions), is erased? How much of it becomes null...

24 Hours Prior to Heller Case by Alan Korwin, Co-Author Supreme Court Gun Cases More people are on line in front of the U.S. Supreme Court for the D.C. gun ban case tomorrow than seats are available, and the temperature is hovering above freezing, but that's not stopping them. Bob Blackmer and I were the first to arrive, Sunday night about 5 p.m., answering the big question of -- Would two nights in advance be enough -- aside from did we have endurance to pull that off. A few moments later, Jason and Dan arrived from Pennsylvania with sleeping bags...

The Second Amendment to the Constitution, now under consideration by the U.S. Supreme Court in the District of Columbia v. Heller case, raises a grammatical question as well as a legal question. The grammatical structure of this one sentence Amendment creates two arguable meanings. Did it created a collective right of the people "to keep and bear arms" as members of a "well regulated militia?" Or did it created and individual right for each American "to keep and bear arms?" The First Amendment affirmatively and clearly states that "Congress shall make no law" respecting religion, or abridging the freedoms of...

How incredible it is that in the U.S., where so many people have been killed by gunfire for decades, the country's Supreme Court is just now getting around to deciding what the constitutional right to have and carry guns means. Last week, the court indicated that it's ready to interpret the Second Amendment. It was seized with an appeal from a federal appeals court ruling last year that declared the District of Columbia's near-ban on handguns unconstitutional. There's been a lot of controversy already about what the amendment means because of the way it's written: "A well regulated Militia, being...