The Supreme Court of the United States is frequently called upon to interpret and rule upon the rights retained by citizens in the Constitution. Recently the court delivered a landmark decision on this, the 2nd Amendment in the Bill of Rights:
"A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."
In a 5 to 4 ruling in the case of the "District of Columbia v. Heller", the court upheld this right. In effect, you and I retained a fundamental right by one vote. We were one vote away from losing our 2nd Amendment right as guaranteed to us by the founding fathers. The SCOTUS Justices ruled as follows:
Majority Opinion:
Antonin Scalia Ronald Reagan appointee, age 72, Conservative
John G. Roberts Jr. George W Bush appointee, age 53, Conservative
Clarence Thomas George Herbert Walker Bush appointee, age 60, Conservative
Samuel A. Alito Jr. George W Bush appointee, age 58, Conservative
Anthony M. Kennedy Ronald Reagan appointee, age 71, moderate to Liberal
Minority Opinion:
David Souter George Herbert Walker Bush appointee, age 68, Liberal
John Paul Stevens Gerald Ford appointee, age 88, Liberal
Ruth Bader Ginsberg Bill Clinton appointee, age 75, Liberal
Stephen Breyer Bill Clinton appointee, age 69, Liberal
This ruling largely supports the general consensus that we have four consistently Conservative Justices in Scalia, Roberts, Thomas and Alito; four consistently Liberal Justices in Souter, Stevens, Ginsburg and Breyer; and a moderate judge in Kennedy who is most often on the Liberal side. It is widely believed that at least two of these Justices will retire during the next presidential administration, and the next President will appoint replacements who will influence the direction of this country for decades to come.
Barack Obama has the most Liberal voting record in the U.S. Senate. He has recently waffled on his stance on gun control. Consequently, his real intentions in this regard remain hidden. However the following quote is somewhat telling of his disdain for those who wish to exercise 2nd Amendment rights:
"You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration and the Bush administration and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are going to regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations," ~ Barack Obama
A Barack Obama presidency will likely result in the appointment of 2 Liberal leaning Justices aligned with his Liberal ideology and Liberal positions on the issues. When we are one vote away from losing a fundamental right, we don't need a Liberal President who will add more Liberal Justices who will surely further water down our Constitutional rights. We need a Conservative President who will appoint Conservative Justices who will be Conservative of our rights?
Please consider these facts when you cast your vote in November, and also pass this information to everyone you know of legal voting age.
