GUNS, SLAUGHTERHOUSES AND YOU

The United States Supreme Court heard arguments, today, in McDonald v. Chicago; a case involving the right to own guns in the City of Chicago. The arguments, however, rose to a much higher level.

Most people remain unaware that the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, which applies the rights guaranteed to US citizens in the 5th Amendment to the citizens of each state (thereby ending slavery throughout the country) does not mandate that each state guarantee all of our rights in each state. This is particularly true of the “Privileges and Immunities” clause of the 4th Amendment.

In a group of cases that came to be known as the “Slaughterhouse Cases,” the Supreme Court, in 1873 ruled that the 14th Amendment only applies to federal rights, not the “privileges and immunities” guaranteed by a citizen’s home state. It was this argument, in addition to the Due Process clause, that was used to argue in favor of overturning Chicago’s ban on gun ownership. Now, whether you are for or against “the right to bear arms,” it is instructive that the Court seemed OK with the “Due Process” argument (and will probably invalidate the law), but not the “Privileges and Immunities” clause.

Although CJ Roberts had no difficulty in reversing a century’s worth of jurisprudence to allow corporations to purchase our country, he quickly shied away from the prospect when it came to applying this clause, stating that McDonald had a “heavy burden" because his approach entailed striking down the Slaughterhouse cases of 1873.” For the uninitiated, nearly every modern legal scholar agrees that these cases were decided incorrectly.

Why would Chief Justice Roberts be so quick to grant privileges to corporations but not to individual citizens? Perhaps because if the Court applies the “Privileges and Immunities” clause through the 14th Amendment, it would open the floodgate to everything that conservatives are against. EVERY state would have to recognize a gay marriage performed in another state, just as EVERY state would have to grant every US citizen within its borders the rights and privileges granted to them by their home states (oh my God, they could smoke their medical marijuana anywhere!).

Come on, Mr. Chief Justice; stick to your guns and if you insist upon overturning good precedent, don’t be afraid to overturn the bad as well.