New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. City of New York gives the Supreme Court its best chance to stop cities, states and lower courts from thumbing their noses at the Second Amendment.
The late Justice Antonin Scalia wrote: “We know of no other enumerated constitutional right whose core protection has been subjected to a freestanding “interest-balancing” approach. The very enumeration of the right takes out of the hands of government—even the Third Branch of Government—the power to decide on a case-by-case basis whether the right is really worth insisting upon.”
This is why the Supreme Court needs to seize the opportunity before it. The lower courts have proven that they are not willing to protect our right to keep and bear arms, just like they did pre-Heller. When Heller was handed down in 2008, it effectively overruled nine different circuits.
The Supreme Court has the chance to reinforce its 11-year-old message to the lower courts: the Second Amendment is not to be weighed against governmental interests. The people have a natural right to keep and bear arms. Courts must consider that right as important as our Founders and Framers did. Until that happens, governments across our republic will continue to ignore our rights, and the lower courts will not stop them.
– Cody J. Wisniewski in It’s Time For The Supreme Court To Make States Stop Ignoring The Second Amendment