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Antonin Scalia, a sitting U.S. Supreme Court Justice, has died:
US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia - one of most conservative members of the high court - has died. Justice Scalia's death could shift the balance of power on the US high court, allowing President Barack Obama to add a fifth liberal justice to the court. The court's conservative majority has recently stalled major efforts by the Obama administration on climate change and immigration.
Justice Scalia, 79, was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1986. He died in his sleep early on Saturday while in West Texas for [a] hunting trip, the US Marshall service said. Justice Scalia was one of the most prominent proponents of "originalism" - a conservative legal philosophy that believes the US Constitution has a fixed meaning and does not change with the times.
Justice Scalia's death is, unsurprisingly, now being widely reported.
From the San Antonio Express News:
According to a report, Scalia arrived at the ranch on Friday and attended a private party with about 40 people. When he did not appear for breakfast, a person associated with the ranch went to his room and found a body.
[...] The U.S. Marshal Service, the Presidio County sheriff and the FBI were involved in the investigation. Officials with the law enforcement agencies declined to comment.
A federal official who asked not to be named said there was no evidence of foul play and it appeared that Scalia died of natural causes.
A gray Cadillac hearse pulled into the ranch last Saturday afternoon. The hearse came from Alpine Memorial Funeral Home.
Most major news outlets are covering this story, including CNN [video autoplays], The Washington Post, The New York Times, and NBC.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 14 2016, @06:18AM
**sigh**
Words develop new meaning with time, and old meanings go out of style. The militia is every male from roughly age 12 to 60. It doesn't mean the national guard. The word "regulated" means accurate, capable, and similar. It doesn't mean restricted by law. Even if this were not so however...
You need to be good with English grammar. The sentence construction works like this: "Because we think X is important, the right to Y is allowed." Note that the first part is merely a justification. It has no bearing on the law. It's no different from the first part of "Because blind people suffer, they get a tax credit of $XXXX per year." (which is NOT a law requiring blind people to suffer or making the discount only available to those who do)
(Score: 1) by Francis on Sunday February 14 2016, @02:09PM
Bullshit. Then why can't I own a rocket launcher? It's because the second amendment was never intended to be an individual right to keep and bear arms.
Also that's a restrictive clause. It's not a matter of explanationtion, it's a restriction. What's more it definitely did have a bearing before the right rewrote it in order to suit their agenda. It is a group right so that the states could have armed police and guard troops.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 14 2016, @05:41PM
By our constitution, it looks like you can in fact own at least a hand-held rocket launcher if not more. (do you "bear" a truck-mounted one or even a silo?) We probably should have put a stop to rocket launchers via a constitutional amendment, but instead we let judges get away with reinterpreting our constitution to deal with the issue.
It's wishful thinking, or a failure to understand English, that leads some to think that the 2nd amendment starts with a restrictive clause. That just isn't how English works.
Where our constitution reserves rights to the states, it actually says so. This isn't the case with the 2nd amendment. You might as well say that the 1st amendment is a collective right so that states can, via their senators, speak their mind.