In a case involving the Second Amendment right to bear arms, a U.S. Supreme Court majority is leaning toward ruling that the U.S. Constitution's first 10 amendments -- the Bill of Rights -- all protect individual rights.
Hallelujah!
If that indication from oral arguments in McDonald v. Chicago holds true, the court will quash the notion that the Second Amendment somehow is a collective, "militia"-based right. If the rest of the Bill of Rights protects individual rights -- and it does -- so must the Second Amendment.
The case challenging Chicago's gun-control law raises the question of whether the Second Amendment -- like the First -- protects a "fundamental right" that state and local laws cannot trump. A court majority thankfully seems to believe that the Constitution says what it means and means what it says and will be content to let future legal challenges define state gun regulations' limits.
A Second Amendment "fundamental right" ruling likely would cite precedent based on the 14th Amendment's due-process clause. But it might rely instead on the 14th Amendment's ban on state infringement of "privileges or immunities."
Whatever the constitutional rationale, common sense -- which dictates that as part of the Bill of Rights, the Second Amendment protects individual rights -- must prevail.
