From The Founder's Desk
columnist: Walt Thiessen

Topic: Gun Control
D.C. Gun Control Court Appeal Should Show Supreme Court's True Colors

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With the announcement today that the District of Columbia is appealing a recent Federal appeals court panel ruling that their handgun law is in violation of the 2nd amendment to the Constitution, we get a chance to discover whether conservative judges actually support the Constitution as their supporters claim.

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by Walt Thiessen
(Libertarian)
Thursday, September 6, 2007

The Associated Press is reporting today that the District of Columbia has, "asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a ruling that struck down the city's 30-year-old ban on private handgun ownership." Of course, now we have to wait to see if the Court actually takes the case. There's no guarantee that they will, although the AP suggests that they're expected to do so.

If it is taken up by the Court, then this case becomes a two-fold test. First and foremost, it becomes a test of the Constitutionality of gun control. Undoubtedly we will be hearing from all camps on this issue heavily starting on the first Monday in October.

The second test is to see whether or not the current make-up of the Court, which many consider to be conservative (while others consider it to be liberal), will actually support the Constitution by upholding the 2nd amendment. We libertarians have long been suspicious of conservatives who claim that they're supporters of the 2nd amendment. This suspicion is fully justified given the short shrift conservative politicians and judges have given in practice to the rest of the Bill of Rights, particularly over the past 20-30 years. Over and over again, conservatives have tried to assure libertarians that it's important to get conservative judges on the bench and conservative politicians into office for just this sort of issue. Over and over again, many of those same conservative judges have ruled against the Constitution and in favor of "positivist" law, and many of those same conservative politicians have voted in Congress to decimate the Bill of Rights.

I don't really expect to see a break in the pattern with this case. True, it was groundbreaking for the appeals court panel to rule against the D.C. law based upon its Constitutional faults. We hadn't seen that kind of judicial courage in a long time. But can we count on the same sort of courage from the people sitting on the top bench? I doubt it.

Gun rights advocates should prepare themselves for disappointment. I expect that at best the Court will grant a pyrrhic victory to the Constitutional side of the argument, while practically allowing D.C. to continue to practice the impractical art of attempting to disarm the population. It will be hailed by some as a small step forward for gun rights, but that's the most that's likely to be "good" about the outcome.

If my prognostication is correct (and let's face it, pronosticating is a very risky business!), this case could end up driving an even greater wedge between libertarians and conservatives than already exists. In my opinion, anything less than a ruling by the Court that strikes down the D.C. law will show just how weak conservatives are on gun rights, as exhibited by the judges Rerpublican/Conservative Presidents have nominated to the bench over the years.

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2007 Walt Thiessen, all rights reserved.
Published: Thursday, September 6, 2007
Last modified: Saturday, September 8, 2007

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