second amendment

A finding that the Second Amendment protects individuals’ right to own a gun could also provide more solid ground for recognition of the right to abortion, to sexual privacy, to gay marriage, and to a wide variety of other rights that conservative justices on the court and “originalist” Constitutional scholars have long opposed.

Maybe now we’ll finally get to find out where the high court’s newest justice, Sonia Sotomayor, really stands when it comes to whether the Second Amendment guarantees individual citizens a “right to bear arms.”
That was a contentious issue at her confirmation hearings, with Republican gun enthusiasts warning that she doesn’t support gun ownership as a [...]

The goings-on of red state Republican officials aren’t usually national news, but this story from Boise is a fitting postscript to a week that started with Second Amendment activists bringing guns to a presidential speech and muttering about “forcefully resisting” the government.

Critics of the conservatives who’ve brought guns to rallies outside of President Barack Obama’s speeches have found an unlikely ally: Bernard Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner whose 2004 nomination to run the Department of Homeland Security foundered under ethics scandals. In a column for Newsmax, Kerik invokes his cred as a “lifetime [...]

We now know that there were two men who openly carried assault rifles — CNN reports they were AR-15s — outside the Veterans of Foreign Wars hall in Phoenix where President Obama spoke yesterday. According to The Associated Press, about eight more people were carrying other types of guns.
Arizona allows people to openly carry guns, [...]

Much has been made of the New Hampshire man, William Kostric, who showed up outside President Obama’s health care speech in Portsmouth Tuesday with a loaded gun strapped to his leg and a sign calling for the blood of tyrants.
Last night, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) weighed in on the episode, telling MSNBC’s Ed Schultz that [...]

As the Senate begins deliberation today on the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, the outcome of the vote is pretty clear. As the Los Angeles Times points out, “the only remaining questions are whether the National Rifle Assn. can claim to have swayed votes against her and whether President Obama can claim [...]

It’s not everyday that lawmakers with top ratings from the National Rifle Association go around criticizing the powerful gun lobby. But regarding the NRA’s bid to pressure senators to vote against Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, some are losing their patience.
Here’s Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), quoted yesterday by The Hill:
“I’m very disappointed. [NRA seems] to [...]

As the Senate Judiciary Committee readies for today’s vote on Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor, conservative judicial activists are taking stock of the battle that demanded so much of their energy for more than two months.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) has taken his case against Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor to the public, explaining why he plans to vote against a nominee that even some in his own party are saying is among the most qualified candidates for the high court in decades.
Still, it’s not completely clear if he’s warning conservatives [...]