On June 25th, 2015, the Supreme Court ruled that a law’s language doesn’t matter. What matters: what the Justices want the law to say. We have seen this break-down in the rule of law before. The Warren Court was famous for it. During the so-called Roosevelt revolution of the 1930’s, the Supreme Court went down the same path. There was a brief period in the early 2000s when the Court applied the Constitution to questions of constitutionality. The left labeled this a “radically conservative court” but it was merely a tendency to follow law and truth, rather than rubber-stamping “progressive” ideology . . .
It’s obvious that the Supreme Court has now become “pragmatic.” When a law doesn’t support “important” legislation the Court carefully crafts an opinion to support the administration’s agenda which, by extension, they support. A penalty is not a tax. Obamacare is saved. A state mandate isn’t a state mandate. Obamacare is saved again. Marriage is a Constitutionally protected right. The administration’s newfound enthusiasm for “marriage equality” is the law of the land.
The only hope for a return to Constitutional restraints: an end to the current administration. It’s not a hope that a future can be built upon. After the SCOTUSCare decision, we can no longer depend on the Supreme Court to protect Second Amendment-protected rights. The Obama administration will bring whatever pressure it can against the Justices to insure that they do not strike down the “may issue” concealed carry statutes imprisoning gun rights throughout the land.
Which is why the Court hasn’t accepted any Second Amendment cases since McDonald. The conservative Justices are afraid that a wavering Justice, typically Justice Kennedy, will vote against them, gutting Heller and McDonald. The “progressive” Justices are afraid of the exact same thing, in reverse. They don’t want a ruling that confirms and expands gun rights. Stalemate. At best.
Again this isn’t new. The Supreme Court failed to protect the Second Amendment from 1935 through 2005. It only started to recognize the individual right to keep and bear arms after Second Amendment activists organized and won legislative battles, educated greater and greater numbers of the public, and pushed the Court to rule properly.
Second Amendment activists will have to use their existing organizations, communications ability, and all their remaining protections under the First, Second, Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments to hold on to the restoration of freedoms that have been won in the last 20 years. Legislatively, they may be able to do more.
In State and Federal legislatures, they can win back what the Courts are refusing to protect. The Obama administration will not be in power forever. There will be a backlash. It may happen that a Justice or Justices on the Supreme Court will find the ability to act ethically after the abuses of this administration end.
For the next year and a half, don’t expect the Supreme Court to protect American gun rights. Second Amendment supporters should be glad that the Court has not taken important Second Amendment cases. If my analysis is correct, the next year and a half is a very dangerous time for gun right in America. Keep your powder dry.
©2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
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