Tony Perkins Washington Update
Before the Supreme Court closed its doors for the summer the justices handed down a few significant rulings for experts to chew on over the break. If you followed yesterdays news you undoubtedly heard about a gun rights case called McDonald v. City of Chicago.
In headlines splashed across the major newspapers reporters called it a sweeping victory for Second Amendment rights--but for pro-family conservatives it could mean much more. Apart from striking down Chicagos gun ban the Supreme Court refused to reinforce the foundation of both the Roe v. Wade (legalized abortion) and Lawrence v. Texas (legalized sodomy) rulings.
FRC joined a brief in the case because both arguments offered to the Court for advancing gun rights endangered family rights. The libertarian activists running the McDonald case asked the Supreme Court to overturn a landmark 1873 decision. But in doing so the judges would have new power to declare a constitutional right to gay marriage abortion and advance other parts of the liberal social agenda. On the other side the National Rifle Association argued that gun rights should be applied to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause. But that approach called substantive due process is the legal foundation used by the Supreme Court to legalize abortion and sodomy.
Our brief written by FRC Special Counsel Ken Klukowski explained how the Supreme Court could extend the Second Amendment to the states without using either of these deeply-flawed legal theories. Were extremely pleased to report that the Supreme Court did in fact avoid the legal ditches on both sides of the constitutional road. Four conservative justices used the substantive due process view in Justice Sam Alitos opinion but Justice Clarence Thomas refused to join it.
So although there were five votes to extend the Second Amendment to the states there were not five votes for the positions that could have had disastrous implications for our pro-life pro-marriage values. As a result gun rights were extended to the states without strengthening the foundation of Roe and Lawrence. This takes us one step closer to the day when Roe v. Wade can be overturned and Americas respect for the sanctity of human life can be restored. To read more from Ken about the fallout from McDonald check out his new Townhall op-ed The Gun Rights Decision in McDonald v. Chicago.
