Stop, Heller Time
No Heller for you. Come back one day. Or in the Fall. We’ll get around to it.
This is like the third time I’ve anxiously watched SCOTUSBlog and, after a tense build up, nothing happened. It’s like dating.
Update: The Chief Justice has announced from the courtroom that the Court will issue all of its remaining opinions tomorrow at 10 a.m. Eastern
June 25th, 2008 at 10:29 am
SCOTUSblog’s little ratchet sound effect is cool, though.
June 25th, 2008 at 10:46 am
OK, that’s a pretty good one, but I’ve already staked my claim to tomorrow’s blog post title “Hellerva Morning!” (and derivatives thereof).
June 25th, 2008 at 10:49 am
I’m was gonna go with Oh Hell(er) Yeah or Aw, Hell(er) No!
June 25th, 2008 at 10:54 am
All remaining opinions, or all remaining opinions they’re gonna release this term? IANAL, but there’s no reason they couldn’t stretch this thing out further is there?
June 25th, 2008 at 11:31 am
They say the third date is where you make it to the promised land.
June 25th, 2008 at 11:39 am
Wow, what a bunch of cock teases. I smell 5-4 coming on…
June 25th, 2008 at 11:43 am
I’ve finished chipping my flint spearhead and am soaking the sinew to secure it to the shaft.
June 25th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
I hope SCOTUS rules by the rules of English grammar, so all Federal gun laws (except those that apply to our federal employees on the job) can be declared unconstitutional, null and void.
June 25th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Can anyone tell me exactly how a opinion is presented? I assume Roberts doesn’t just come out to the courthouse steps and start handing out press kits.
Is the public invited to watch? What’s the deal here? I’ve just read about a bazillion news stories and I still haven’t a clue.
June 25th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
I would not expect too much from a court that would not let a state set it’s laws for the rape of a child. They seem more concern for the rights of the scum bag than that of a child.The reason they give is because it did not result in the lost of life of the child. I would think that having to go through life with that in your head would be worst than death. But wait this is the same court that believes that Terrorist has rights under OUR constitution. Don’t be surprised at any thing they do.
June 25th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
Actually, given it’s a case about guns, I’m suprised no one has made the obvious Old Yeller reference yet.
June 25th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Old Yeller? That’d be if we lose… “Supremes take Old Heller out back and shoot him in the head.”
June 25th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
# Stormy Dragon Says:
Old Heller, by Robb
June 25th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
LOL!, Stormy Dragon.
I teared up when Ol’ Yeller got his lead pill for “hydraphobie”… I was about 6 yrs old I think….that movie came out back around ’57 and I saw it in one of the movie places down on Church St. in Nashville.
That movie starred Fess Parker and one of my gunner boyhood heroes, Chuck Connors aka “Lucas McCain, the Rifleman”, who carried that fancy modified Winchester .44-40. ….and Tommy Kirk I think his name was, who played in some of the Disney flicks back then. I believe he had to administer Ol’ Yeller’s lead pill.
June 25th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Is Heller Highwater is taken?
June 25th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
heller skelter?
June 25th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
As far as I know, its just released to the public. There is no formal setting at the SCOTUS building or anything like that.
June 25th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
It seems to me that it’s a rather sad commentary on the state of the court, and consequently, the public’s opinion of it, that there is any suspense whatsoever about this decision…
Even a cursory review of the Amendment itself and the Federalist Papers gives the patently obvious answer. Any Justice on the dissent side is simply identifying themselves as a partisan hack to be dismissed with a wave of the hand and forever after banished to the realm of ridicule and derision.
June 25th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
anon,
Hopefully the dissent side will be “partisan hacks” and actually the agents of tyranny. But you’re correct, IF they read the 2nd Amendment in plain English (which they should’ve learned by junior high, and in its obvious historical context, it’s a no-brainer RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE and ALL Federal gun laws infringing on said RIGHT are null and void.
Even a “favorable ruling” probably won’t be to that lawful extent.
June 25th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
Not quite like dating: on a real date you at least knows what she looks like first! 🙂
June 25th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
It ends with “The Aristocrats!” and you really don’t want to know what they do with Ginsburg.
June 25th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
Given a few other recent SCOTUS rulings, I’m not expecting very good news…
June 25th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Heller HighWater is particularly apropos in the Midwest right now.
June 25th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
A bad ruling will piss off gun owners, hopefully enough to shut down Obama.
June 25th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
Maybe SCOTUS is working from the Mayan Calendar. Heller 2012.
June 25th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
# Manish Says:
I should have been more specific. Is it done by the Supreme Beings themselves, or handled by minions? What I’m getting at is it possible that the people of the black robe are already on their way out of town when the heller hits the rotary air movement device? Would that be a partial reason why they wait to release some of the most anticipated ones last?
June 26th, 2008 at 12:14 am
This is actually a friend’s exact theory. That, and that Heller is quite arguably the most important decision of the term, so they’re saving the “best” for last.
Either that or they’re totally just screwing with us.
June 26th, 2008 at 12:46 am
In some cases, Justices choose to read parts of their opinions — majority or dissent — from the bench. I believe they’ll be there when it’s released. Whether or not they’ll be in town when it hits the five o’clock news is a different matter. OTOH, that’s old-media thinking, isn’t it?
June 26th, 2008 at 2:22 am
So the SCOTUS has to figure out what the Framers meant… what they were trying to accomplish when they wrote the Second Amendment?
“The right of the Executive Branch of each of the several states to maintain an armed, well-regulated militia shall not be infringed.”
But wait. That’s not what they wrote. And if that’s what they had meant, then that’s what they would have said. Or something to that effect.
“… the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”
The people. That’s us. The people. That’s what they said. And with or without the “well-regulated militia” part, that’s what they meant.
You need not read anything other than the Constitution itself and perhaps the Declaration of Independence. In trying to form a Nation of laws, it seems as though they attempted to consider every conceivable way in which a government could screw its citizenry (based on their own experiences) and then tried to provide some protection against it. Three branches of government and all the checks and balances therein. Freedom of speech. The non-establishment of an official relegion. The right to peacefully assemble. The right to keep and bear arms. The right to due process… your day in court with the proceedings governed by a known and published set of rules. Protection from unreasonable search and seizure. The right to a trial. The right to counsel. The right to see the evidence against you. Etc.
Then there’s the whole Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness thing.
The founding documents affirm, among other things, each individual’s right to defend him/herself against a government or person who seeks to do them harm. No right can be taken away without due process.
Two amendments seem to be relevent in Heller. Certainly the Second Amendment affirming (not granting… affirming) the right to keep and bear arms. But also the Fourth Amendment affirming the right to be secure in our persons, houses, papers, and effects.
Seems to me like the D.C. gun ban infringes upon both.
One way or another, hopefully the Heller desicion will force both presidential candidates to explain their positions on the private ownership of guns.
Is Heller in a handbasket taken?
June 26th, 2008 at 7:03 am
May the justices declare today that we are still free in America!!
How about ” Heller on little red wheels” ?