The Supreme Court may take up another gun rights case and new justice Amy Coney Barrett may be the deciding vote. New York Times. The case involves a convicted but non-violent felon trying to get her right to keep and bear arms back. An appeals court rejected her challenge but the dissent used arguments from a similar dissent by Amy Coney Barrett when she was an appeals judge in Chicago. If accepted the case would be the first major gun rights case since 2010 McDonald case. Under Chief Justice Roberts the court has been extremely warry of taking gun rights cases despite the courts four conservative justices saying the 2nd amendment has been treated poorly. With the death of Ruth Bader Ginsberg it is now possible that Amy Coney Barrett will be the deciding pro-2nd Amendment vote.
My Comment:
It seems too early to speculate if the Supreme Court will even take this case, but many news outlets are doing so, including both sides of the political spectrum. Fox News also had a post up about this case and the potential for a major gun rights win. I went with the New York Times as a source because it was a news article and not an opinion piece but if both a left leaning and a (ostensibly) right leaning source are both saying the same thing it's a good bet that there is a chance it will happen.
I do have to say that the case itself is not a priority for me. I don't particularly care about the rights of convicted felons. Don't get me wrong, any win against gun control is a win, but with magazine bans, assault weapon bans and red flag laws my concerns lie elsewhere.
With that being said I do think there is an argument to be made that people who have served their time and haven't committed violence should get their rights back. One mistake shouldn't mean you have to give up your rights for life, especially if your crime had nothing to do with physical violence. I think it's obvious that the right shouldn't be restored until their time has been served (including probation and parole) but once that happens you should be able to get your guns back.
This might end up being a double edged sword for Republicans though as if they win this case they would be handing a golden precedent to the Democrats who would argue that felons should also get back their voting rights. Presumably they would then vote for the Democratic Party, though that is no sure thing.
Regardless though I do think that in both cases people who have served their time and haven't actually abused the laws in questions (a person involved in gun crime shouldn't get their gun rights back and a person involved in voter fraud shouldn't get their voting rights back) should have a pathway to getting those rights back. Rights should not be permanently forfeited for all but the most extreme crimes.
As for the court I do hope that they take this case. They punted on the New York case which they should have ruled in favor of gun rights. It's very clear that the conservative part of the court can't count on Justice Roberts for anything as he is far more concerned with playing politics (or he is compromised) to care about actually making rulings based on the constitution. As much as the Democrats wrung their hands about a supposed 6-3 conservative majority it's very clear that it was a 4-5 split until Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, leaving with our current 5-4 slim majority.
I do think that the other four conservative justices will vote the same way as Barrett. Gorsuch, Alito, Thomas and Kavanaugh are all generally pro-gun and I can't really imagine any of them flipping on the issue. Maybe Gorsuch but that would be surprising. And I think with them finally having a 5-4 majority on this issue they might actually take up a case.
Finally, I have to say that I am very thankful that Donald J. Trump was president for the past four years. He has been successful in many ways but it's hard to understate how effective he and Mitch McConnell have been in assigning judges. Securing the Supreme Court helped save the 2nd amendment and if the unthinkable happens and Joe Biden is sworn in next year they will be a major check to his tyranny. But here is hoping that they also protect our elections along with our 2nd amendment rights to bear arms.
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