HELLER V. DC, SCOTUS ARGUMENTS LIVE!!

Just let me know if Thomas opens his mouth.

I'm definitely going to have to catch this on a CSPAN repeat. Sounds great so far.

http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/uncategorized/analysis-defining-a-right-of-self-defense/

Something interesting I found from the Wikipedia Article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_of_Columbia_v._Heller#Political_reaction

Clement's digging a hole for DC.

Oh, smack down on the class III bans!

Which is a sensible thing to argue considering that it's almost certain to be close to the position that swing-man Kennedy comes out with. Any attempt to have actual influence over the Court's decision has to be an appeal to Kennedy, so making an argument that Kennedy might actually adopt is the best way to nudge the Court in one direction or the other. The best either party can hope for out of this case is to persuade Kennedy to go to the outer bounds of the range of opinions he'd be willing to support.

Appearances at these things can be deceiving.

I've never heard this turn of phrase before.

I can guess as to it's meaning, but I prefer to go to the horses mouth.

What's it mean?

Quibbling over minutia is a Justice's lifeblood. That's when you know they're being serious. When they fight over bigger questions that means they've given up on convincing each other and they're grandstanding just for the heck of it, because Justices pretty much never convince each other on bigger issues.

Tap-dancing. Figuratively, in this case.

And the USA reserves the right to squash Montana like a bug if they try it.

We will put them all on reservations. After sending blankets with Ebola of course. In fifty years they can build casinos.

So this is not on cspan now? Sad.

If the 2nd Amendment was violated, I would join with all our brothers in Montana!

You're a doofus.

EDIT: But at least you're a lot better than CleverWombat.

I've had this on my calendar for months, but I got tied up and couldn't watch or listen to it. Does anyone know where I can watch the video, listen to the audio, or read the transcript, preferably in that order?

The CSPAN feed was audio only, so I don't think there's video.

rtsp://video.c-span.org/archive/sc/sc031808_2amendment.rm

It looks like the court has ruled that citizens do have a right to keep and bear arms and that DC's ban goes too far.

They're ruling on it today? I thought today was just the beginning of some long arduous ordeal.

Erm...yeah. It takes weeks and months for SCOTUS to get around to issuing an opinion.

No ruling was made today.

The media, however, is pouncing upon comments made by the various Justices during the oral arguments.

Damned AP...they just updated their news report. The court did indeed not rule today as they previously stated. You folks are correct. The information I was looking at was not correct.

My guess is that even when there's a ruling there won't be a ruling. My expectation is that the Court will find an individual right--perhaps a broad-based right, perhaps a right to possess in one's home for the purpose of self-defense that again punts on broader rquestions--and that such right will be subject to the kind of time, place (if a broad based right is found), and manner restrictions to which other rights are subject. The Supreme Court will then send the case back down to the District Court for fact-finding that never took place because the District Court found no individual right and wouldn't have known what standard to apply to determine whether a regulation is a valid restriction on that right even if it had found such a right.

In short, I predict a decision that makes no one happy.

You can try.