U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments were held today in McDonald v. Chicago, a potentially landmark case concerning guns rights and regulations. Find the oral arguments transcript here.
Read what some of the legal pundits have to say following today’s oral arguments at the WSJ Law Blog, NYT, and SCOTUSblog.
Click here for more coverage of the case by SCOTUSwiki, including links to the briefs and more commentary.
Check out the TJSL Library Display of materials related to the case just to the right of the circulation desk (pictured above).
Here’s a brief summary of the case thus far from wikipedia:
McDonald v. Chicago is a lawsuit originally filed before the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, and for which a petition for certiorari was granted on Sept. 30, 2009, by the Supreme Court of the United States. The petitioners seek to overturn a handgun ban, and other aspects of gun registration regulations affecting rifles and shotguns, in Chicago, Illinois as unconstitutional. This was the first such lawsuit since the landmark Supreme Court ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), which held that the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution protected an individual right to “keep and bear arms.” The case was filed by Alan Gura, who successfully argued Heller, and Chicago-area attorney David G. Sigale. The case is sponsored by the Second Amendment Foundation and the Illinois State Rifle Association on behalf of several Chicago residents, including retiree Otis McDonald.
The trial court entered judgment in favor of the City of Chicago on December 18, 2008. The decision was appealed to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals and combined with a similar case, NRA v. Chicago. Oral argument was May 26, 2009, and the court issued its opinion on June 2, 2009, affirming the trial court’s decision that the Chicago and Oak Park gun regulations pass constitutional muster.
The Second Amendment Foundation appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court for certiorari on behalf of their plaintiffs. Certiorari for McDonald was granted on September 30, 2009. Oral arguments are scheduled for March 2, 2010. The NRA has separately filed on behalf of their plaintiffs, and on January 25, 2010 the Supreme Court granted the NRA’s motion for divided argument.
Wikipedia ©2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald_v._Chicago
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