An article appeared in Tuesday’s Daily Punctilio (AKA Ft. Wayne Journal Gazette) by the Dean of Law at the University of California – Irvine, Erwin Chemerinsky. The JG’s web site doesn’t have the article up for some reason. But in his article Chemerinsky argues that the second amendment is relevant only as it applies to “a well regulated militia.” Lex answers:
Tuesday’s piece by Erwin Chemerinsky is just another in a long line of Lib tripe as the JG’s editorial page continues to morph into Ft. Wayne’s print version of Countdown with Keith Olbermann.
Chemerinsky’s dissection of the court’s recent 5-4 ruling in favor of individual gun rights contained everything EXCEPT the five most relevant words of the second amendment as they pertain to an individual right - “the right of the people” as in “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” You could put Moby Dick in front of those words as a dependant clause and it would not change their clear meaning.
Unless Chemerinsky is prepared to argue that “We the people…” refers only to those who wrote and ratified our Constitution or that “the right of the people to peaceably assemble” is somehow restricted to a chosen few or that “the people” in the ninth amendment is a similarly restricted group of “people” other than “the people” – as in all of the people - of the United States, he ought to embrace the court’s decision.
Chemerinsky and his ilk shouldn’t be worried that the majority found that our Constitution said what it clearly says. What should worry all of us – the people – is that four unelected justices saw fit to ignore the plain language of the second amendment in an attempt to remove one of our rights through judicial fiat.
Conservatives considering sitting out this election because they think McCain is too liberal ought to consider the tenuous balance of the Supreme Court before doing so.
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