Legislators Will File Brief In McDonald v. Chicago Case

[Tom Servo]

This week comes the news that U.S. Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.), are joining forces with U.S. Representatives Mark Souder (R-Ind.) and Mike Ross (D-Ark.), in filing a joint, pro-Second Amendment amicus curiae (Friend of the Court) brief before the Supreme Court in the McDonald v. Chicago case.

Read the alert here.

Sens. Hutchison and Tester, and Reps. Souder and Ross authored a similar amicus brief prior to the U.S. Supreme Court hearing oral arguments in the District of Columbia v. Heller case in 2008. In that brief, the four affirmed the view that individual rights are guaranteed by the Second Amendment, and were able to get a record number of Members of Congress—55 Senators and 250 Representatives—to sign it.

These briefs, as they come, are likely to be longer and richer in historic and textual analysis than those submitted for Heller, as there's simply much more specific evidence available from the drafting of the 14th Amendment.

[csmsss]

Great! More work for the SCOTUS clerks, more stuff for folks like us to ruminate over, pick through and dissect, but quite unlikely to sway any votes. Still, let it ride!