Heller, the Supreme Court’s first ever in-depth look at the Second Amendment, may come out today.
[Update]Immediately after posting, I clicked over to SCOTUSblog, and discovered that today’s opinions have been released, and Heller is not among them.
There are seven remaining opinions. SCOTUS has said more will be released Wednesday. It’s very likely that at least one decision, likely Heller, will come out Thursday. Sigh. [/update]
Probably not, though. There are ten cases left for release this term. The Court is likely to space them out over several days. and Heller will likely be left for last. See Alan Korwin’s Page Nine email #48:
The Heller decision could actually come later than June 23, the widely anticipated last scheduled day of proceedings for the session. The Court can add days to its calendar for additional decisions if it needs to, but these would typically come before the end of the week (June 27). Absolutely no way to know for sure until they act.
Lead attorney Alan Gura pointed out in an email to me (6/19/08) that the Court still has ten decisions left to issue, including three biggies, so it’s highly likely they will add days to the calendar.
My conjecture: The decision must be signed and sealed now for at least days if not weeks, to allow for proofing, typesetting, printing, binding, pre-mail activity, web prep, syllabus draft, etc. My guess is they would rather release it at the end, so the national hub bub doesn’t impinge on other work they have. Requests for interviews, phone calls from friends and close associates, shouting in the press, a ton of activity can be expected, might as well finish off the term first, no?
[Page 9 is also a blog, although these particular observations do not seem to be there. Here's a link to an article linking in turn to the articles he wrote back in March, when oral arguments were made. Korwin is the author of the Gun Laws of America series.]
Just for the record:
No matter what the Court actually says, it cannot decide whether or not I have the right to arm myself with deadly force. I do, the Constitution plainly says that I do, and it was the intent of the Founders that ordinary citizens be able to understand in some detail what their government is allowed to do. The Court can only decide whether or not the Government recognizes that right, and, by extension, whether or not the Government still considers itself bound by the Constitution.
My predictions: The D.C. Circuit decision will be upheld, and the D.C. laws in question will be voided. That’s all. There will not be strong guidance on setting a standard of review, simply a finding that the D.C. laws are infringing under any standard.
Nevertheless, as Korwin said in March, “Whatever direction the Court provides, D.C. will end up as a model for the rest of the nation, and the Pandora’s Box is open.”
Nor will there be broad declarations of the meaning and breadth of the Second, other than possibly torpedoing once and for all the “collective” interpretation that it only protects the power of the several states to raise militias (non-binding musings in dicta notwithstanding).