U.S. SUPREME COURT DECIDES THAT SECOND AMENDMENT PROTECTS CITIZENS AGAINST STATE AND LOCAL INFRINGEMENT ON THE RIGHT TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS
June 28, 2010
Today in McDonald v. Chicago the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Second Amendment's right to “keep and bear arms” applies to the states and local governments, a ruling that will likely lead to the downfall of many handgun laws in cities like Chicago and New York City where private handgun ownership is illegal. Judge Roy Moore and the Foundation for Moral Law had filed an amicus curiae brief in the case, arguing that city handgun bans violate the God-given, inalienable right of self-defense and the right of the people to keep and bear arms under the Second Amendment. (Read the Foundation's brief in McDonald here.)
The Court in McDonald extended its holding in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008)—that the Second Amendment protects an individual right of the people to keep and bear arms for citizens in federal jurisdictions like Washington D.C. In today's 5-4 vote, the Court affirmed that the people have a right, through the due process clause of the 14th Amendment, to keep and bear arms regardless of the city or state in which they live: “it is clear that the Framers and ratifiers of the Fourteenth Amendment counted the right to keep and bear arms among those fundamental rights necessary to our system of ordered liberty.”
Judge Roy Moore noted:
“The Supreme Court again upheld our right to keep and bear arms, but by a very narrow margin. We should be very concerned about every liberal nomination made by the Obama Administration to the U.S. Supreme Court. Should the balance of power ever shift we will begin to lose these valuable rights.”
In their McDonald brief, Judge Moore and the Foundation discussed the ancient and natural right of self-defense and self-preservation given by God, and how the right to keep and bear arms is a “privilege or immunity” held by all United States citizens and protected by the 14th Amendment. The Court's majority opinion chose instead to apply the due process clause, although Justice Clarence Thomas agreed with the Foundation in a separate opinion that the privileges and immunities clause made the 2d Amendment a right of all U.S. citizens.
The Foundation for Moral Law, a national non-profit legal organization, is located in Montgomery, Alabama, and is dedicated to restoring the knowledge of God in law and government through litigation and education relating to moral issues and religious liberty cases.
