McDonald

The US Supreme Court issued a decision today on McDonald vs Chicago, a gun rights case. They held that the 2nd Amendment is incorporated against the states.

This is a gun rights victory and one we'll be debating for a long time. The Court's decision was split 5-4 along fairly predictable lines.

Lots of folks more learned than I will be parsing the language of the Court in the coming days. What I find interesting is that four Justices decided to rule that an enumerated right is not binding on the states. These four Justices, Stevens, Breyer, Ginsburg and Sotomayor are on the liberal side of the Court, and that surprises me that they would rule against expanding the rights of citizens. When I was a young scholar, I was taught that liberals tend to advance human rights and this case is clearly a case where human rights could be advanced by incorporation. The only logical inference I can draw is that they aren't interested in expanding human rights, which makes me wonder if their only stumbling point is that the case revolves around gun rights.

So, if these four justices are against individual rights, the only conclusion we can draw is that they're not liberal, they're statists. Or fascists. Either way, these four justices are plainly out of touch with the concept of individual liberty.