Somehow I missed this: On October 16, the United States Court of Appeals (Fifth Circuit) issued a ruling in United States v. Emerson. The court conducted a lengthy analysis of the Second Amendment - the right to keep and bear arms - and whether it enumerates an individual right or a collective right. After analyzing prior court decisions and the text of the Second Amendment itself, they concluded:
... It appears clear that "the people," as used in the Constitution, including the Second Amendment, refers to individual Americans....We turn now to the Second Amendment's preamble: "A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State." And, we ask ourselves whether this preamble suffices to mandate what would be an otherwise implausible collective rights or sophisticated collective rights interpretation of the amendment. We conclude that it does not.
Sarah Brady, phone your office.
Posted by wasylik at November 5, 2001 11:55 AM | TrackBack