McDonald v. Chicago: In this landmark (I'm calling it) decision (which is a follow-up to District of Columbia v. Heller), the Court held that the 2nd Amendment right to keep and bear arms is one of the ' fundamental rights necessary to the Nation's system of ordered liberty'. The Court also held that the 14th Amendment makes the 2nd Amendment right to keep and bear arms fully applicable to the States.
Stevens, writing the dissenting opinion, tries to argue the following: 1) 'Firearms have a fundamentally ambivalent relationship to liberty' (i.e. it does more harm than good); 2) It is a 'different kind' of right; 3) Codified for the elimination of a militia, thus interpreted as a federalism provision (governmental vs. individual right); 3) We ought not do so for 'prudential reasons'.
Of particular note (and a favorite of this author), please read Justice Scalia's massacre of Steven's dissenting opinion. Specifically:
JUSTICE STEVENS abhors a system in which “majorities or powerful interest groups always get their way,” post, at 56, but replaces it with a system in which unelected and life tenured judges always get their way. That such usurpation is effected unabashedly, see post, at 53—with “the judge’s cards . . . laid on the table,” ibid.—makes it even worse. In a vibrant democracy, usurpation should have to be accomplished in the dark. It is JUSTICE STEVENS’ approach, not the Court’s, that puts democracy in peril.
Reading the opinion from Alito and the supporting opinion from the Chief Justice Scalia, I have SOME faith that our government is on the right track - at least this author thinks that they got this one right.
Grace & Peace
PLW
I am especially proud of Hunter (I'm a little biased) because he allowed only a few runs for his multiple innings of pitching, hussled, made contact with the ball and was in the right position to make the play defensively.
As it relates to our heavenly father, He cares about our heart. He knows we are going to screw up (I'm his greatest example), but our failures allows him to speak truth into our lives and we are usually in a better position to listen. 