Friday, June 27, 2008

Pot meet kettle

The Supreme Court decided Thursday that Washington, D.C.'s law prohibiting guns within the city was unconstitutional in that in violated the Second Amendment. The 5-4 majority (predictable idealogical lines with Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, Alito and Kennedy) essentially said that the Right to Bear Arms applies to individuals and should not be restricted to state's being permitted to maintain standing militias.

According to the ruling, schools and government buildings can remain gun-free zones. And states can limit a person's ability to carry a concealed weapon. That's good, right? But nevertheless, this is bad chicken for our nation's capital which has rampant poverty and violence.

Where were the conservatives decrying the Supreme's legislating from the bench? Where were the cries of judicial activism to advance ideology? So it's damned important that we make sure the government does not encroach on our ability to own a lethal weapon. But it's fine for the government to monitor my library records, phone calls without a warrant, create watch lists, imprison people without charging them for years in horrible conditions, send them on special planes to Kazakhstan and other places to be knowingly tortured thus absolving ourselves of a dirty conscience. For fuck's sake.

This Op-Ed by UC Irvine law school dean Erwin Chereminsky says it far more eloquently.

No comments: