Can one be in love with Montana?
Montana has a history of telling the feds to bugger off. Their legislature condemned the Patriot Act; they asked politicos for federal office why they think they’re exempt from campaign finance laws; and introduced a bill a while back telling the feds to get out of their gun permit and drivers’ license process. And they kicked around a law that said firearms made in Montana weren’t subject to federal law.
Well, now they’ve gone and impressed me again with their Heller brief:
A collective rights decision by the court would violate the contract by which Montana entered into statehood, called the Compact With the United States and archived at Article I of the Montana Constitution. When Montana and the United States entered into this bilateral contract in 1889, the U.S. approved the right to bear arms in the Montana Constitution, guaranteeing the right of “any person” to bear arms, clearly an individual right.
There was no assertion in 1889 that the Second Amendment was susceptible to a collective rights interpretation, and the parties to the contract understood the Second Amendment to be consistent with the declared Montana constitutional right of “any person” to bear arms.
As a bedrock principle of law, a contract must be honored so as to give effect to the intent of the contracting parties. A collective rights decision by the court in Heller would invoke an era of unilaterally revisable contracts by violating the statehood contract between the United States and Montana, and many other states.
I’m with Robb with two Bs, I need to find work there.
February 21st, 2008 at 10:40 am
If it weren’t so far north… but I guess that’s what keeps out the riff-raff.
February 21st, 2008 at 10:44 am
They need to send some of whatever they are drinking over to Nebraska.
February 21st, 2008 at 10:45 am
And here I was thinking of migrating a few miles north to New Hampshire. I may have to reconsider…
February 21st, 2008 at 11:09 am
I live in Missoula and although it’s the most liberal town in the state, I LOVE it here. If you don’t mind cold and snow (and I grew up in NC, so I have had my fill of heat) it’s an awesome place to live. 🙂 Feel free to come visit me and the Commander to check it out!
February 21st, 2008 at 11:11 am
I may have to do that.
February 21st, 2008 at 11:51 am
Don’t think I could get the missus to come with me, but if we lose Heller and Montana secedes…
February 21st, 2008 at 12:16 pm
Bingo! I just found my retirement property: a nice little tract of land up in Montana.
I hate the cold, but I love the way these folks think.
February 21st, 2008 at 12:55 pm
I’ll be retiring in 2010 and have always planned on relocating to a state like Wyoming or Montana. This certainly makes the decision easier for me.
[just 2 more years… I can do it… I can do it…]
February 21st, 2008 at 1:29 pm
Careful with that headline, Unc. She’s under age. 😉
February 21st, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Just a reminder that Montana also has a Democrat governor who’s an advocate for Global Warming Alarmism, and a US Senator who is a big fan of farm subsidies.
They might be good on gun rights, but if you’re expecting a libertarian nirvana, Montana isn’t it.
February 21st, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Captain Holly,
Montana did have a Libertarian Senate candidate who was “allowed” to be in their 2006 pre-election debates, but the subject matter he discussed would not have been allowed in the national media, which protects the people from such information and opinion:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1671321257664384859&q=libertarian+stan+jones&total=3&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0
February 21st, 2008 at 3:14 pm
Damn, Rob beat me to it.
As a side note, my brother pisses off his 9-year-old daughter by calling her “Miley Ray Cyrus.”
February 21st, 2008 at 5:18 pm
You may want to re-think that move to Montana. Ever been there in the winter? It makes Minnesota and Wisconsin look like Florida.
February 21st, 2008 at 5:29 pm
I’ll meet ya there. Yeah, it’s cold, but if you’re a snowboarder or skier you’ll get over it.
February 21st, 2008 at 8:50 pm
Montana also returns 2A rights to convicted felons after they are completely through with state supervision. They refused to do background checks because it didn’t matter, in Montana, felons got all their rights back, once all their time was served, that includes parole, probation etc,. Not eligible until successfully completing state supervision, but at that point returned to full citizenship, excepting of course federal proscriptions.
Surprisingly, Montana has the lowest recidivism rate of all the states and territories of the U.S.
February 21st, 2008 at 10:43 pm
Whaddya do? My company is hiring. We could certainly use people who’s vote will counteract all the [expletive deleted] Californians who are moving here and voting the dems into power.
Of course, our democrat senators are more conservative than many of their republican cow-orkers, including this election’s republican presidential candidate.
February 21st, 2008 at 10:45 pm
I count beans.
February 21st, 2008 at 11:02 pm
Surprisingly, Montana has the lowest recidivism rate of all the states and territories of the U.S.
I’m not sure that it’s all that surprising, considering that most crime has a lot more to do with population density than anything else, and Montana ranks 48th in that regard.
February 22nd, 2008 at 12:42 am
I’m a software consultant 😀
February 22nd, 2008 at 3:01 am
We’re talking rate ,here not total. Montanans have not, to my knowledge, descended from a demonstrably different species of homo erectus than the rest of us. Ergo, one could expect the same manifestations of human nature in comparable amounts,or ratio, if you will, as we could expect from humans elsewhere.
Yet, we see in Montana that a restored citizen seems to be less eager to risk his full citizenship again, after having regained it and possibly learned the value of it. A markedly different response from denizens of other venues where every conviction carries lifetime punishment.
I have no data to support the thought that the reason is as I have assumed, only that I know what my reaction would be to either circumstance and what my reaction would be. As I do not believe I am especially unique, i must assume, at the least, there are others who think as I do.
February 22nd, 2008 at 10:55 am
It amy be cold in the winter (hell, who are we fooling, it ain’t exactly warm in the summer either…), but good lord is it gorgeous with the snow. And without the snow. And just about all the rest of the times too.
Then there is that whole “your ‘neighbor’ is five miles away” thing that some people just love…
February 23rd, 2008 at 4:16 am
Montana is gorgeous, no doubt about it. I have loved it since the first time I saw it.
February 24th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
Hmm… Too bad… the abacus users hired someone to help em count beans just a couple of weeks ago. The only Montana jobs the headcount wrangler seems to be looking for right now are warehouse workers and delivery drivers.