Today’s Supreme Court decision that we have individual rights to arm ourselves highlights more than any other recent decision the absurdity of allowing the federal government, through its courts, to determine the limits of its own powers. This came about in the post-1865 era, once states’ rights/federalism was destroyed. (Yes, judicial review existed for a long time before that, but presidents, state legislatures, and citizens viewed it as merely the Supreme Court’s opinion, not THE FINAL WORD, ONCE AND FOR ALL on constitutional issues).
The shocking thing about today’s decision is that if one man — Anthony Kennedy — voted the other way, then what — we would all be forcefully disarmed?
A judicial dictatorship is what nationalists like Alexander Hamilton and his disciple, Justice John Marshall, wanted, and that of course is what we’ve ended up with. But imagine if the Court declared in 1805 that Americans do not have individual rights to own firearms. Do you think the Jeffersonians would have given up their firearms and genuflected to the black-robed deities of the Court? Hell no; they would have reached for them and commenced another revolution.
4:49 pm on June 26, 2008
