Quote of the day–John Bingham

Privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States … are chiefly defined in the first eight amendments to the Constitution of the United States… . These eight articles … never were limitations upon the power of the states until made so by the Fourteenth Amendment.

John Bingham
1871
Bingham was a primary architect of the 14th Amendment.
[This is something to keep in mind as later this month, after being more than 140 years overdue, the Second Amendment is finally acknowledged as a barrier to state and local governments infringement on a specific enumerated right. Bigots ignore the spirit and the intent of the law. We have a legal system. Not a justice system.

Although I haven’t read all of Alan Gura’s briefs so maybe he did use this but if he didn’t it would seem to me he overlooked powerful support for his approach to incorporation of the Second Amendment.

I found this while reading The Gun Rights War, page 75.–Joe]

Share

4 thoughts on “Quote of the day–John Bingham

  1. Gura made a case for incorporation under P&I but it was pretty clear during the oral arguments that the justices weren’t having any of that.

  2. Yes, I know. But some of the same justices who gave him grief were also fans of original intent. Could they have been persuaded with reference to Bingham?

  3. I do not believe they can be persuaded by the law, the intent of the law, the constitution or the concept of justice. They will vote as has been the case in every court according to their personal beliefs. Where those beliefs contradict the aforementiones articles, they will torture the language to justify their calumny.

    Have too much of it to think any other way.

    In Heller they upheld the “individual right”, then provided instructions on how different levels of government could deny those rights. I do not expect they will do anything more liberty oriented or in accordance with the constitution in McDonald.

    I hope I am wrong, but I wouldn’t bet against me, if I were anybody else.

  4. Although I don’t think it contains this particular quote, Gura’s brief, is loaded with references to Bingham. The brief is well worth reading, if only for the history lesson. I hadn’t realized just how badly the original intent of the 14th Amendment has been ignored, until I read this and some of Glenn Reynold’s stuff.

Comments are closed.