Heritage helps secure Second Amendment rights
March 13, 2007 | By Nathaniel Ward
In a victory for individual civil rights and the original understanding of the Constitution, a federal appeals court last Friday overturned on Constitutional grounds the 30-year ban on DC residents’ possession of functional firearms in their homes in the nation’s capital—and Heritage Foundation experts helped secure this important victory.
In a two-to-one decision, a panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit held that a close reading of the Second Amendment indicates that “the right in question is individual” and that Washington, D.C.’s almost complete prohibition on handguns in the home is unconstitutional. You can read the whole opinion online in PDF format.
Todd Gaziano, director of Heritage’s Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, explained the ruling to Rob Bluey:
The plaintiffs were seeking the limited right to posses modern guns in their homes, keep them loaded, without trigger locks, and move them about their homes for purposes of self-defense. Such rights were specifically upheld as individual rights guaranteed by the Second Amendment. To the extent D.C. ordinances forbade permits for such limited use, they were struck down as unconstitutional. (There are still many unresolved issues, however. I would think a permit or license will still be required. In the future, though, D.C. will not be allowed automatically to turn down an application by a law-abiding citizen for such use.)
Bluey is director of the Center for Media & Public Policy at The Heritage Foundation.
Heritage legal scholars helped the winning side prepare its case. For example, Heritage hosted an important “moot court,” or practice oral argument session, and other preparatory sessions to brief the primary advocates on strategy and Constitutional arguments.
A similar suit was dismissed by the same appellate court in 2005 because the plaintiffs were deemed not to have standing to challenge the D.C. gun ban. “This is a prime example of how a strategic approach to raising the right issues and in the right manner can make all the difference,” Gaziano explained.
City officials said they will appeal the decision to the full court.
The facts on federal spending
“Before the nation can come together on federal budget solutions, it has to agree on the basic budget facts,” Heritage budget expert Brian Riedl writes. To ensure Congress, the media and the American people are aware of these facts, Riedl and others in the domestic policy department at Heritage have pored over the government’s spending data and produced the latest edition of “Federal Spending—By the Numbers.”
Click here to read the disheartening numbers in Riedl’s latest report.
The stability of marriage
Liberals maintain that “alternative lifestyles” are “just as good” as traditional marriage. But is that really the case?
More social science reviewed by Heritage’s FamilyFacts.org indicates that cohabitation is a less stable form of relationship than marriage. “A 2003 study found that cohabiting relationships were less enduring during their early years than marriages,” the website reports. “Overall, cohabiting couples’ rate of separation was five times that of married couples.”
In other news
- President Bush has ordered an additional 8,200 troops to Iraq and Afghanistan.
- The Associated Press says what no liberal will dare say about ethanol: “most analysts conclude its environmental benefits are questionable at best.” Meanwhile, a new USDA report finds that demand for corn-based ethanol is driving up the cost of feed corn for animals—reducing projected domestic meat output by 250,000,000 pounds in 2007.
- Following a campaign by far-left activists, the Nevada Democratic Party has canceled a scheduled presidential candidates’ debate on Fox News.
- The federal government is ordering the town of Port Chester, NY, to re-draw its local electoral districts so that minority groups are granted “fairer” representation on the city’s governing board.
- A European Union bureaucrat has suggested that Apple’s iPod and iTunes Store, which have revolutionized the music industry, may violate consumer protection laws. Sadly, Europe still doesn’t realize that innovation should be rewarded, not punished.
- As President Bush tours South America to meet with allies in Brazil, Colombia and elsewhere, Venezuela’s socialist autocrat Hugo Chavez mounted a rival tour on which he claimed that those who believe in free enterprise “want to go direct to hell.”
- California’s “medical marijuana” laws are already being exploited, as doctors issue writs for the “medicine” without even medical examinations.
- European leaders pledged last week to slash carbon dioxide emissions. European countries continue to miss the targets set by the Kyoto accords, so it remains to be seen whether the more ambitious plan has any chance of success.
Coming up at Heritage
To attend these or any other Heritage Foundation events, RSVP at Heritage’s events website. Or you can watch these events live online at Heritage.org. All times are Eastern.
- On Wednesday, March 14 at noon, scholars Anthony Cordesman, Frederick Kagan and Kenneth Pollack will join Heritage’s Jim Phillips to discuss American policy in Iraq going forward.
- On Thursday, March 15 at noon, Heritage hosts a panel discussion on the importance of outcome-based evaluation to faith-based social services—as opposed to the process-based evaluation of traditional social services.
Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation.
