Words For Government To Live By
By Mitch Berg
Paul Clement, arguing on behalf of the NRA at Tuesday’s SCOTUS hearing on McDonald Vs. Chicago, with emphasis added:
Just to dwell for a moment if I’d could on the First and Second Amendment, I think it’s striking, very striking, that if this Court’s not going to reconsider its Privileges or Immunities Clause jurisprudence, the Cruikshank case [an 1876 case that ruled that the First and Second Amendments restricted federal power] actually stands as very good precedent for incorporating the Second Amendment, just as it was the precedent this Court relied on in incorporating the assembly and petition rights of the First Amendment in the DeJonge case. And the reason is Cruikshank — the whole reason that Cruikshank said the First and Second Amendments aren’t privileges of national citizenship is because they were preexisting rights that didn’t depend on the Constitution for their existence.
That seems to me to be a pretty good working definition of what a fundamental right is, one that is so fundamental and basic that it preexisted our very Constitution. And so it’s not surprising that DeJonge cited Cruikshank as favorable precedent for incorporation.
I think the exact same logic would apply to the Second Amendment here and, as I say, I do think the consequence of that, certainly the most logical consequence, would be to carry over the jurisprudence under the Second Amendment. Now, right now that’s not carrying over a lot, right. That’s carrying over the Heller case.
But I think in a way that points up to the fact that one of the virtues of incorporation is that, because the Miller decision of this Court sowed confusion, we do not have substantial Second Amendment jurisprudence. And I would think that it’s going to be difficult enough to develop the Second Amendment jurisprudence that you wouldn’t want to make it more difficult by having to develop a Federal Second Amendment jurisprudence and then some sort of shadow version of that jurisprudence for the States.
Heller was the first time I’d ever actually read SCOTUS (or any other) transcripts. It helps to be a lawyer and all, since they do sorta talk their little funky secret lawyer language half the time – but it’s interesting stuff.
