Gun Rally
Liberals and the NRA have found common cause in a pending supreme court case.When the constitutional accountability Center launched in 2008, it looked like just another liberal legal-advocacy group, dedicated to "fulfilling the progressive promise of our Constitution's text and history." The causes it has backed run the standard liberal gamut: among other things, the group supports California's efforts to regulate carbon emissions and pushes for "robust due-process protections for immigrant criminal defendants." So if you were told that the CAC had filed an amicus brief in McDonald v. Chicago, a case about gun control to be argued before the Supreme Court this week, you might think it was siding with Chicago, whose restrictions on gun ownership are being challenged.
You would be wrong. For decades, liberals have opposed gun rights on the grounds that the Second Amendment is limited to the establishment of state militias. But some liberal dissenters from this view now say that is too narrow a reading of the Constitution. They contend that it fails to take into account the historical record and contradicts liberals' own reading of the Constitution's protection of individual rights.
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The CAC's main concern in weighing in on the McDonald case isn't to secure gun rights but to set a precedent that will expand individuals' protection under the Bill of Rights to the state level. That would, they hope, bolster liberal constitutional arguments in favor of stronger due-process and abortion-rights protections.
The real issue in McDonald is whether the Second Amendment applies to the states. Currently, it covers only the federal government. The Supreme Court has already applied "fundamental rights," such as the right to free speech, to states. The National Rifle Association is asking the court to elevate the Second Amendment to the list of fundamental rights. The CAC hopes instead that the court will add not just the Second Amendment but the whole Bill of Rights. That would make state laws vulnerable to federal-court challenges under a part of the Constitution that liberals love: the "privileges or immunities" clause of the 14th Amendment. Liberals would be able to sue states in federal court on everything from welfare to gay marriage, challenging laws that deprive someone of the "privileges or immunities" of citizenship. The CAC believes the benefits of these new protections are worth the weaker gun laws that may go along with them.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/234185/page/1