Justice at Risk
Trump’s nominee to succeed Scalia will restore a right-wing majority. One additional Trump appointee could undo rights established 50 years ago and more.
Erwin Chemerinsky
Guns. Few issues so closely correspond to ideology and party affiliation as the meaning of the Second Amendment. Until 2008, the Supreme Court never had invalidated any law for violating the Second Amendment. The Court always had ruled that the Second Amendment was about a right to have guns for the purpose of militia service. But in District of Columbia v. Heller that year, the Court, in a 5–4 decision, struck down a 32-year-old District of Columbia ordinance that prohibited private ownership or possession of handguns. Scalia wrote for the Court, joined by Roberts, Kennedy, Thomas, and Alito. Two years later, in McDonald v. City of Chicago, the same five justices were the majority in a 5–4 decision holding that the Second Amendment is a fundamental right that applies to state and local laws as well. These are the only cases in all of American history to invalidate laws for violating the Second Amendment.
Without Scalia, the Court was split 4–4 on the meaning of the Second Amendment. The appointment of Garland or of a Clinton nominee would have meant the Court would have been unlikely to extend gun rights and very well might have overruled Heller and McDonald. Replacing Scalia with a conservative means a Court likely to strike down many other laws regulating firearms.
If we let Trump pick a couple of justices, civilization is going to collapse.
Oh, the horror!