Wow, was it a year ago?

I took the day off and went down to the S.C. to stand outside. Met Clayton Cramer; nice man. Watched the demonstrators and the press. Spoke to a retired member of the S.C. Bar who had watched the arguments and thought that D.C. had done well. Ha!

I wish I coulda been there.

From the moment the oral arguments concluded to the moment that the decision was released, I was on pins and needles. The only thing that I did not expect from the outcome was Justice Ginsburg's vote. I thought after her years at the ACLU, she would have been very much for the individual right instead of for the big government. I just couldn't see her saying that the 4th or 5th amendment only applied in certain circumstances, where allowed by law. Her questions didn't really tip me one way or the other, except to show that she had thoroughly researched the area. I loved listening to the audio tape though. The moment when D.C. had lost in their own minds, and were basically just going through the motions... That note of defeat in their voice... boy was I happy.
-Jdude

I hope someday to take as much cheer from the decision as I ought to.
Certainly the most important civil rights decision in decades going in favor of individual rights of any kind should have brought much greater relief than it did.
Perhaps it's from living too close to Chicago, but the narrowness of the decision, and the stunning (to me) ability of our fanciest attorneys to read the law and still see regulation instead of right still chills.
And 5-4 should scare everybody.

I was sitting among some pro-2nd Amendment people, and the second Kennedy spoke up the entire area near me emitted a huge collective sigh.