Very good news for the McDonald case:
An overwhelming, bipartisan majority of members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate have signed an amicus curiae, or “friend of the court,” brief supporting the NRA’s position that the Second Amendment is incorporated against the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. The amicus brief, bearing the signatures of 251 Members of Congress and 58 Senators, was filed with the U.S. Supreme Court today in the case of McDonald v. City of Chicago.
Enough members of the Pennsylvania delegation signed on, including both our Senators, that it’s easier just to list who didn’t sign on. Those are:
- Bob Brady (D, PA-01)
- Chaka Fattah (D, PA-02)
- Kathleen Dahlkemper (D, PA-03)
- Joe Sestak (D, PA-07)
- Allyson Schwartz (D, PA-13)
- Mike Doyle (D, PA-14)
That’s not bad out of 19 districts (well, not counting the recovery.gov districts). Even my Congressman, Patrick Murphy signed on. Maybe he’s reconsidering his position on Second Amendment rights? I hope so.
UPDATE: Anyone else notice the brief was written by Paul Clement? The Paul Clement who was Bush’s solicitor General who argued against us in the Heller case.
Warner, Webb and Wolf on board. That makes me all warm and fuzzy.
Ron Paul didn’t sign the brief. Surprising.
The Honorable Mr Paul probably doesn’t see a constitutional need for it; hence no signature.
Remember, in the Value Voters debate Paul was the only candidate to indicate ‘No’ on whether he would vote for a marriage amendment, since it’s none of the government’s business.
I wonder who are the other 42 spineless senators out there are…
Forty-two Senators NOT signing incorporation brief:
Akaka, Daniel K. – (D – HI)
Bingaman, Jeff – (D – NM)
Boxer, Barbara – (D – CA)
Brown, Sherrod – (D – OH)
Burris, Roland W. – (D – IL)
Byrd, Robert C. – (D – WV)
Cantwell, Maria – (D – WA)
Cardin, Benjamin L. – (D – MD)
Carper, Thomas R. – (D – DE)
Conrad, Kent – (D – ND)
Dodd, Christopher J. – (D – CT)
Dorgan, Byron L. – (D – ND)
Durbin, Richard J. – (D – IL)
Feinstein, Dianne – (D – CA)
Franken, Al – (D – MN)
Gillibrand, Kirsten E. – (D – NY)
Harkin, Tom – (D – IA)
Inouye, Daniel K. – (D – HI)
Kaufman, Edward E. – (D – DE)
Kerry, John F. – (D – MA)
Kirk, Paul G., Jr. – (D – MA)
Kohl, Herb – (D – WI)
Lautenberg, Frank R. – (D – NJ)
Leahy, Patrick J. – (D – VT)
Levin, Carl – (D – MI)
Lieberman, Joseph I. – (ID – CT)
Lugar, Richard G. – (R – IN)
McCaskill, Claire – (D – MO)
Menendez, Robert – (D – NJ)
Merkley, Jeff – (D – OR)
Mikulski, Barbara A. – (D – MD)
Murray, Patty – (D – WA)
Nelson, Bill – (D – FL)
Pryor, Mark L. – (D – AR)
Reed, Jack – (D – RI)
Rockefeller, John D., IV – (D – WV)
Sanders, Bernard – (I – VT)
Schumer, Charles E. – (D – NY)
Stabenow, Debbie – (D – MI)
Udall, Tom – (D – NM)
Whitehouse, Sheldon – (D – RI)
Wyden, Ron – (D – OR)
I can’t *wait* to hear Caleb exercise his vocab on Lugar… (In my experience coasties can be … salty of language)
(I’m relatively happy – while both my senators are on the list above, my Rep signed on the dotted line for this one. Glad I voted for him)
Also, I read through the brief – it was (from a layman’s perspective) pretty well done; and from my point of view hammered on “keep and bear” with very little effort spent on just “keep”.
My representative Sarbanes did not sign and neither did Senators Mikulski and Cardin but my other representaive Kratovil a Democrat whose district by other property is in did sign on. I called and thanked him plus he voted against the Health Car bill.
Kratovil is one of the Blue Dogs from a liberal state but 50-60% of his district is republican and more conservative. That poor man did do the early town halls and was hung in efigy but he had courage and continued.
I have been watching carefully and he is the type of Democrat I like. He has a more liberal bent but appears to be honest and tries hard.
So I did the right thing and called his office to thank him.