An Alternative History about this week's SCOTUS rulings

June 26, 2008 Washington, DC (AP)

Supreme Court: Individuals don't have right to gun ownership

In a stunning blow to pro-gun forces such as the National Rifle Association, the Supreme Court today upheld the District of Columbia's ban on handgun ownership. In a sweeping 6-3 decision, the Court rejected the position that individuals have a right under the Second Amendment to keep and bear arms.

The majority opinion, authored by Justice Stephen Breyer and joined by Justices John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, David Souter, and the court's two newest members, Chief Justice Mario Cuomo and Justice Marsha Berzon, declared that the Consitution "clearly spells out that gun ownership is a right limited to those whom a state decides belong to a well ordered miltia".

The opinion concluded "there is no constitutional obligation for a state to organize such a militia and to the extent it chooses to establish one, whether this militia bans certain weapons is a matter beyond constitutional review"

In a stinging dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia, joined by Justice Clarence Thomas  accused the majority of "emasculating the meaning of the Bill of Rights by permitting the capricious disarmament of law adiding citixens". Justice Anthony Kennedy also dissented in part from the decision, suggesting some gun bans might be overbroad and unjustified.

Liberals and supporters of gun control hailed the ruling, which cemented the ascendancy of the court's liberal wing, augmented by the two recent appointees by President Kerry, Chief Justice Cuomo and Justice Berzon.    In previous decisions rendered this term, the Court authorized those detainees released from the now shuttered Guantamano Bay prison camp to sue the CIA for damages in U.S. courts, declared the federal Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional, and voided all leases for new U.S.oil drilling as being in violation of the Endangered Species Act.  This followed last year's landmark decision which abolished capital punishment across the United States.

Anticipated to be ruled on next year by the Cuomo court are a challenge to the U.S. immigration statutes as violating the Equal Protection clause of the Constitution, as well as a challenge to Pennsylvania's restrictive abortion statutes.

President Kerry announced his support for the decision upholding the gun ban saying "As far as I know, you can shoot grouse in rural Ohio, but not here in D.C. Effective gun control is how the Kerry Administration plans to fight crime in urban America".  Attorney General  Eric Holder was reportedly planning legal challenges to various gun laws such as "concealed carry" in Florida and other states based on the expected outcome of this case. 

Republican presidential candidate John McCain expressed outrage at today's ruling. Observers believe this was an effort by McCain to rally skeptical conservatives to his camp.

Meanwhile, large celebrations were expected in Cambridge, Berkeley and Aspen to mark the latest milestone in the "new jurisprudence" of the Cuomo court, which liberals have already compared with the Warren Court of the 1960's.

(we were 118,000 votes in Ohio away from this story, folks!)