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Ideology and Second Amendment positions
Prof. Jeff Segal (pol. sci, SUNY) has an interesting study of study of Supreme Court justices and nominees and their apparent ideology. (pdf file--click on "Perceived qualifications...")
For a handful of Justices and former Justices, we know something of their Second Amendment views. Warren Burger and Parade magazine, Bork and his later comments, Rehnquist mentioning the Second Amendment and the "right of the people," Blackmun's slighting of it in Lewis v. US, Douglas's dissent in an informant case saying he'd rather lose the 2nd amendment than the 4th, etc. What's interesting is that the views don't follow much of an ideological pattern. In this assessment, 1.00 equals very liberal (Thurgood Marshall, Wm Brennan) and 00 equals very conservative (Scalia, and I know this lumps together statist and libertarian conservatives -- I suspect the rating system employs a lot of anti-criminal defendant = conservative). Anyway, it's interesting that the known pro and known anti count is exactly the same -- mostly conservative, with one liberal there too:
Pro Second Amendment:
Rehnquist: .045
Black: .875
Thomas: .150
Scalia: .000 [The pros tend to be conservative, but with one liberal in the mix]
Probably pro Second Amendment:
Roberts: .120
Alito: .100 [Probables tend to be conservative]
Anti second amendment:
Douglas: .730
Blackmun: .115
Burger: .115
Bork: .095 [Antis, just like pros, tend to be conservative, with one liberal]
In case you're wondering about the middle -- aren't there any moderates on the Supremes? --for the majority of justices (this includes all nominated since 1937) there's no feel for their second amendment views, and hence they aren't included. The ones about whom we know anything tend to be very conservative or very liberal. Further, the more recent justices seem more likely to have taken a stand (second amendment wasn't a very hot issue before the late 1960s, and most of the positions date from 1980 on), and the more recent courts have been more conservative, hence conservatives tend to predominate in my count.
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