McDonald Gun-Rights Case: Round One Goes to the NRA

It should be understood that the 14th Amendment [enacted to address the problem of the wholesale violation of civil rights by Southern officials determined to keep newly free blacks in a state of constructive servitude while silencing and terrorizing anyone - white or black - who presumed to stand in the way] was not a gesture of modesty; it was a heroic act of national will. It was specifically intended to empower judges and call them to action, not restraint. The 14th Amendment is not a majoritarian text, and neither is the rest of the Constitution. Nor does anything in the Constitution stand for the proposition that uncertainties should always be resolved in favor of more government power. But that was the misguided spirit of...