Straight Platform Politics

Second Amendment Rights: U.S. Supreme Court Decides Gun Control Laws Unconstitutional-Part 11

The Heller Journey: The oral arguments continued

During the Heller arguments, humorous comments from some of the justices elicited laughter. One such incident occurred during discussion of trigger locks. The District’s regulation that prohibited a functional firearm in the home was challenged as being unconstitutional. The regulation required that firearms had to be unloaded and disassembled or trigger locked. See Part 5

During the rebuttal argument of Walter Dellinger for the District of Columbia, Chief Justice Roberts wanted to know how long it took to remove a trigger lock, which was one step in making the firearm functional. The following exchange took place:

“Mr. Dellinger: You – you place a trigger lock on and it has – the version I have, a few – you can buy them at 17^th Street Hardware – has a code, like a three-digit code. You turn to the code and you pull it apart. That’s all it takes. Even – it took me three seconds.

Justice Scalia: You turn on – you turn on the lamp next to your bed so you can – you turn the knob at 3-22-95, and somebody –

Mr. Dellinger: Well –

Chief Justice Roberts: Is it like that? Is it a numerical code?

Mr. Dellinger: Yes, you can have one with a numerical code.

Chief Justice Roberts: So then you turn on the lamp, you pick up your reading glasses –

[Laughter.]”

Chief Justice Roberts asked again about the time factor and Mr. Dellinger responded that it took him three seconds. “I’m not kidding. It’s – it’s not that difficult to do it. That was in daylight.”

The Court’s opinion was decided on June 26, 2008 and was written by Justice Scalia. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the judgment of the Court of Appeals that had ruled that the challenged regulations were unconstitutional.

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Second Amendment Rights: U.S. Supreme Court Decides Gun Control Laws Unconstitutional–Part 10

The U.S. Supreme Court in June 2008 decided District of Columbia v. Heller, a case dealing with the constitutionality of certain gun control provisions in Washington DC’s code of law. The high court confirmed that the Second Amendment did indeed recognize that individuals had a right to own, carry, and use firearms for private use.

The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

The Heller Journey: The oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court

District of Columbia, et al., v. Dick Anthony Heller came before the U.S. Supreme Court on March 18, 2008. Oral arguments began at 10:06 a.m. and ended at 11:43 a.m. at which time the case was considered ‘submitted’ to the court.

Each attorney was given a time limit and had to give his main arguments and make his important points within that timeframe. When the red light went on indicating that Alan Gura’s time was up, he stopped in mid-sentence. See Part 9

However, throughout the oral arguments, the justices were interrupting the attorneys by asking questions, making comments, redirecting the flow of thought, or confirming something that the attorney had said. In this case the chief justice and seven of the justices participated. Justice Thomas, as usual, only listened.

In the midst of the interruptions, the attorneys tried to get back to their main arguments and important points. If an attorney felt that the justices were straying too far from the attorney’s main point or argument, the attorney tried to refocus the discussion.

On rare occasions the justices also interrupted each other or finished each other’s sentences. They would also make opposing comments to a colleague’s observation or point of view.

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