SCOTUS again affirms individual 2A rights

Posted by Kromey at 6:15pm Jun 28 '10
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The SCOTUS delivered its decision today in McDonald v. Chicago, a lawsuit challenging Chicago's gun ban on the grounds that it violates the 2nd Amendment rights of Chicago citizens; today's SCOTUS decision affirms that the Heller decision from two years ago -- which re-affirmed that the 2nd Amendment right to "keep and bear arms" is indeed an individual right -- also applies to the states via incorporation through the 14th Amendment (although there is dissent among the majority whether this is via the "due clause" or the "privileges and immunities" clause).

Here are the results according to the SCOTUS blog:

* Alito announces McDonald v. Chicago: reversed and remanded
* Gun rights prevail
* The opinion concludes that the 14th Amendment does incorporate the Second Amendment right recognized in Heller to keep and bear arms in self defense
* Stevens dissents for himself. Breyer dissents, joined by Ginsburg and Sotomayor.
* The majority seems divided, presumably on the precise standard
* The majority Justices do not support all parts of the Alito opinion, but all five agree that the 2d Amendment applies to state and local government.
* Alito, in the part of the opinion joined by three Justices, concludes that the 2d Amendment is incorporated through the Due Process Clause.
* Thomas thinks the Amendment is incorporated, but not under Due Process. He appears to base incorporation on Privileges or Immunities.
* The difference between the majority and Justice Thomas doesn't affect the fact that the Second Amendment now applies to state and local regulation.
* Full Opinion is here.
* It should be noted that, in the guns case, the Court says explicitly in Alito's opinion that it would not reconsider the Slaughterhouse cases, which almost completely deprive the Privileges or Immunities Clause of any constitutional meaning.
* The opinion leaves the fate of the Chicago gun ordinance in the hands of the 7th Circuit on remand.

Link is to the Wikipedia page on the decision, although the decision is so fresh (mere hours ago!) I'd expect the page to be changing rapidly over the next day or so.