Second Amendment, Supreme Court, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, February, 2019

For eight years after the McDonald v. Chicago decision, the Supreme Court refused to enforce the Second Amendment.

President Trump has appointed two constitutionalist and originalist Justices, Justice Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh. After those appointments, the  Supreme Court agreed to hear the first Second Amendment firearms case since McDonald:  New York Rifle & Pistol Association v. NYC. The official decision to accept the case was on 22 January, 2019.

The next question was, when will the oral arguments for the case be heard?  The possibilities began in April in 2019. If oral arguments were not heard in April, they would be heard in October or later.

Second Amendment supporters are justifiably frustrated with the slow pace of judicial enforcement of Second Amendment rights. Many believe some courts have been deliberately slowing down the process, hoping for the election of a president hostile to the Second Amendment.

The oral argument calendar for the Supreme Court for April has been published. New York Rifle & Pistol Association is not scheduled for April.

This could be significant because the oldest justice on the Court is Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Justice Ginsburg has been hostile to the Second Amendment. She believes it does not apply to the modern world, because it is old.

 Justice Ginsburg voted against  the Heller decision. She voted against the McDonald decision. Her opinion on the Second Amendment is clear.   From armsandthelaw.com:

"If the court had properly interpreted the Second Amendment, the Court would have said that amendment was very important when the nation was new," she said. "It gave a qualified right to keep and bear arms, but it was for one purpose only — and that was the purpose of having militiamen who were able to fight to preserve the nation.""

Ruth's position, is to define the Second Amendment out of existence, without any real argument, because she believes it has no purpose in modern society. The fallback position is that the Second Amendment does not apply to individuals. That is the essential Progressive position on the entire Constitution. It is old, therefore we can ignore it.
Justice Ginsburg has been recovering from cancer surgery that removed on of the lobes of one of her lungs. She is said to be recovering satisfactorily.

The next oral arguments are on Tuesday, 19 February, 2019. Reuters has reported that Justice Ginsburg was at the Supreme Court on Friday, 15 February, 2019,  for a private conference to decide whether or not to take a case deciding if the Executive Branch can add a question to the 2020 census that has been on the census before.

The plantiffs claim the question, about citizenship, might incentivize minorities to avoid being counted on the census. From reuters.com:

Friday’s conference proved highly significant, with the justices agreeing to decide the fate of a bid by President Donald Trump’s administration to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, which opponents say will scare immigrant communities from participating, leading to an undercount.

No pictures of Justice Ginsburg, in private or public, taken since December 15, 2018, have been published, that I have found.

Update: Justice Ginsburg attended the oral arguments on 19 February, 2019, and appeared to have recovered from her surgery. 

Justice Ginsburg is the oldest Justice on the Supreme Court. Her birthday is  on 15 March. Next month, she will be 86 years old.

Eight months from now is the earliest oral arguments will be heard for New York Rifle & Pistol Association. When you are 86, in failing health, eight months is a long time.

©2019 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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