Constiutional Scholar Tribe Expects High Court To Split Heller Down The Middle

Attorney Laurence Tribe has a brilliant mind. To the left on many subjects, he shocked some of his colleagues many years ago when he publicly stated that the Second Amendment does guarantee the individual right to possess a firearm.

Tribe, one of the nation's pre-eminent Constitutional scholars, says nothing he has found gives Americans an unfettered right to own anything they want. I humbly disagree, because the Framers never distinguished in the 2A what citizens of the fledgling democratic republic could own or not own.

Nevertheless, Mr. Tribe has written an interesting piece. Here is an excerpt from The Wall Street Journal column:

"Gun enthusiasts on the right are all but daring justices who protect a woman's right to choose, nowhere mentioned in the Constitution, to trash the 'right of the people to keep and bear arms,' enshrined in the text of the Second Amendment. If the Supreme Court does what they fear and reduces the gun right to a relic of the days when all "able-bodied men" constituted each state's "militia," they will use that defeat to suggest that we need a president who will bring us a truly "conservative" Supreme Court."

"Those on the left have at the same time challenged a court that they see as already leaning hard right to live up to its conservative principles, follow precedent, and limit the Second Amendment -- as the text of its preamble seems to invite -- to the preservation of each state's 'well-regulated militia,' ending once and for all the idea that the Constitution enshrines a personal right to wield firearms . . ."

Tribe's prediction is that the Roberts Court, which tends to "fly a flag of judicial restraint," will find a way to split the opposing viewpoints down the middle, rather than render an opinion that enflames advocates on either side of this highly emotional issue. Sadly I'm afraid he is correct in what the court will do.

Personally, I believe both anecdotal and concrete evidence, as well as history and the intent of the Framers, is on the side of Heller. But I'm not an attorney. And I have witnessed, as my jaw hit the floor, my state Supreme Court ignore clear evidence and render an opinion or two that seemingly made no sense.

Time will tell. Oral arguments for District of Columbia v. Heller take place March 18.