Constitutional Law

Chicago case: divided argument

Petitioner's attorney, Alan Gura, has agreed to divide argument and give 10 minutes to the Attorney General of Texas, to argue on behalf of the 38 States that signed the amicus brief supporting Petitioner.

Yes, I'd say this is going to be lively. Probably more so even than Heller. The Court is looking at:

1) Only its second real right to arms case (Miller was really more of a judicial notice case);

2) It's first 14th Amendment incorporation case in 20-30 years (depending upon what you mean by incorporation case) ... if you take the former measure, only Justice Stevens has been around long enough to have heard one of those, and if you take the latter measure, no one on the Court has ever ruled on the issue;

3) The first serious argument over privileges or immunities incorporation since, oh, 1947, I think ... at which point Justice Alito was not yet born, and Justice Stevens had just received his law degree.

(Gad, looking up Justice Stevens -- not to say he's been around a bit, but he saw Babe Ruth play, received a bronze star for helping with the codebreaking that got Admiral Yamamoto shote down).

Full post as published by Of Arms and the Law on December 17, 2009 (boomark / email).