And congress will diss YOU too unless you let your INDIVIDUAL RIGHT be known. THE POWERS ignore the NRA.
NRA stays out of Sotomayor fight
By Alexander Bolton
Posted: 05/28/09 12:35 PM [ET]
The National Rifle Association (NRA) is staying on the sidelines in the battle over Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, to the dismay of conservative activists who hoped that the gun-rights group would pressure conservative Democratic senators to oppose her.
Republicans have repeatedly tried to draw the NRA into court fights over the years but with little success. The Bush administration, for example, tried to persuade the group to support a number of its nominees, as did Senate Republicans.
But the NRA has often stayed aloof because few nominees have taken clear stands in favor of or opposed to the Second Amendment and other laws affecting gun ownership.
Sotomayor, however, sat on a panel that issued an opinion in a controversial case that could impact gun-owners’ rights, Maloney v. Cuomo. Sotomayor and other members of the court ruled that the Second Amendment does not apply to the states, only to the federal government. The plaintiff in the case argued that a state law barring him from owning nunchucks, a martial arts weapon, violated his constitutional right to bear arms.
Sotomayor’s court also ruled that the Supreme Court’s decision District of Columbia v. Heller, which invalidated the District’s law against handgun possession, did not go so far as to apply the Second Amendment to state law.
This ruling has given some Senate Republican aides and conservative activists hope that the NRA would immerse itself in the debate over Sotomayor.
But a spokesman for the organization said it’s staying on the sidelines for now.
NRA stays out of Sotomayor fight
By Alexander Bolton
Posted: 05/28/09 12:35 PM [ET]
The National Rifle Association (NRA) is staying on the sidelines in the battle over Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, to the dismay of conservative activists who hoped that the gun-rights group would pressure conservative Democratic senators to oppose her.
Republicans have repeatedly tried to draw the NRA into court fights over the years but with little success. The Bush administration, for example, tried to persuade the group to support a number of its nominees, as did Senate Republicans.
But the NRA has often stayed aloof because few nominees have taken clear stands in favor of or opposed to the Second Amendment and other laws affecting gun ownership.
Sotomayor, however, sat on a panel that issued an opinion in a controversial case that could impact gun-owners’ rights, Maloney v. Cuomo. Sotomayor and other members of the court ruled that the Second Amendment does not apply to the states, only to the federal government. The plaintiff in the case argued that a state law barring him from owning nunchucks, a martial arts weapon, violated his constitutional right to bear arms.
Sotomayor’s court also ruled that the Supreme Court’s decision District of Columbia v. Heller, which invalidated the District’s law against handgun possession, did not go so far as to apply the Second Amendment to state law.
This ruling has given some Senate Republican aides and conservative activists hope that the NRA would immerse itself in the debate over Sotomayor.
But a spokesman for the organization said it’s staying on the sidelines for now.