Armed with Activism

District of Columbia v. Heller - Decision 06/26/08

In a striking display of arch-conservative judicial activism, the Supreme Court narrowly struck down the District of Columbia's gun restrictions, which for over thirty years had played an integral role in the city's fight against urban violence.  Though Justice Scalia tirelessly admonishes his less conservative colleagues for second-guessing the reasonable policy decisions of popularly-elected legislatures, he did just that in his opinion.

Justice Scalia, joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Kennedy, Thomas, and Alito, concludes that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to "keep and bear arms" and interprets its ambiguous text to implicitly enshrine a right of self defense.  Justice Scalia displays a reckless indifference toward the reality of urban violence by holding "the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited," yet refusing to articulate a standard by which other gun restrictions may be judged, a decision that Justice Breyer notes in his dissenting opinion will "throw into doubt the constitutionality of gun laws throughout the United States" and frustrate law enforcement efforts to combat the violence plaguing our nation's cities.  "There will be time enough" to deal with the fallout, Justice Scalia responds, callously comparing his failure to provide legislatures with guidelines on firearm restrictions with the ambiguity of the Court's first treatment of the Free Exercise Clause in 1879.

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