By Mark Sherman - The Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court held Monday that the Constitutions Second Amendment restrains governments ability to significantly limit the right to keep and bear arms advancing a recent trend by the John Roberts-led bench to embrace gun rights.
By a narrow 5-4 vote the justices signaled however that less severe restrictions could survive legal challenges.
Writing for the court in a case involving restrictive laws in Chicago and one of its suburbs Justice Samuel Alito said that the Second Amendment right applies equally to the federal government and the states.
The court was split along familiar ideological lines with five conservative-moderate justices in favor of gun rights and four liberals opposed. Chief Justice Roberts voted with the majority.
Two years ago the court declared that the Second Amendment protects an individuals right to possess guns at least for purposes of self-defense in the home.
That ruling applied only to federal laws. It struck down a ban on handguns and a trigger lock requirement for other guns in the District of Columbia a federal city with a unique legal standing. At the same time the court was careful not to cast doubt on other regulations of firearms here.
Gun rights proponents almost immediately filed a federal lawsuit challenging gun control laws in Chicago and its suburb of Oak Park Ill where handguns have been banned for nearly 30 years. The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence says those
laws appear to be the last two remaining outright bans.
Lower federal courts upheld the two laws noting that judges on those benches were bound by Supreme Court precedent and that it would be up to the high court justices to ultimately rule on the true reach of the Second Amendment.
The Supreme Court already has said that most of the guarantees in the Bill of Rights serve as a check on state and local as well as federal laws.
Mondays decision did not explicitly strike down the Chicago area laws ordering a federal appeals court to reconsider its ruling. But it left little doubt that they would eventually fall.
Still Alito noted that the declaration that the Second Amendment is fully binding on states and cities limits (but by no means eliminates) their ability to devise solutions to social problems that suit local needs and values.
