Dred Scott.
The D.C. Circuit, in a 2-1 decision, held today that a District of Columbia gun control law violated the second amendment rights of the plaintiffs to bear arms. The majority concluded that the amendment confers "individual" rights rather than "collective" ones. The 58-page opinion quotes Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. 393, 450 (1857), and includes this on page 39:
Although Dred Scott is as infamous as it was erroneous in holding that African-Americans are not citizens, this passage expresses the view, albeit in passing, that the Second Amendment contains a personal right.
Parker v. District of Columbia, No. 04-7041 (D.C. Cir. Mar. 9, 2007).
Dred Scott, you may recall, held that people of African descent didn’t have, and could never get, the rights of U.S. citizens and that Congress had no power to alter their inferior condition. Parker follows Dred Scott by 150 years, almost to the day. Could the majority not have known that? Blawgletter can only marvel.
Barry Barnett
