Senate Concurrent Resolution SCR-1615 is on its way to the floor of Senate!

Passing the Senate Judiciary Committee with a vote of 10 to 1, the Kansas Sovereignty Resolution clears a big hurdle and moves closer toward sending the federal government the message that Kansas is determined to preserve the rights provided to it under the 10th amendment of United States Constitution.

The focus now shifts to the Health Care Freedom Amendment that was introduced yesterday in both the House and Senate. MARK YOUR CALENDARS for Tuesday, February 9 and 1:30 p.m. as a joint hearing for this legislation will be conducted in the Old Supreme Court room on the 3rd floor of the State House in Topeka.

The Health Care Freedom Amendment will give voters the opportunity to vote to amend the State Constitution to secure the right for Kansans to make their own health care insurance decisions, not Washington D.C.

EVERYONE MUST  BE AWARE however that not all 24 Senators that co-sponsored the Sovereignty Resolution signed on as co-sponsors of the Health Care Freedom Amendment. IT IS VITAL to contact both your State Rep. and Senator and let them know how you want them to be representing YOU!

Find your legislators by clicking the following link:

http://maps.kansasgis.org/demograph/ims/myelect.cfm

Supreme Court Schedules Arguments in Chi Gun Case

The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in the McDonald v. City of Chicago case on Tuesday, March 2, 2010.

The McDonald case is one of several that were filed immediately after last year’s decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, in which the Court upheld the Second Amendment as an individual right and invalidated Washington, D.C.’s ban on handgun possession, as well as the capital city’s ban on keeping loaded, operable firearms for self-defense in the home.

On November 16, the NRA filed its brief with the U.S. Supreme Court as Respondent in Support of Petitioner in McDonald v. City of Chicago. The NRA brief asks the U.S. Supreme Court to hold that the Second Amendment applies to state and local governments through the Fourteenth Amendment.

As a party in McDonald, the NRA is actively involved in this case and we believe our brief makes a clear and strong case in favor of incorporation of the Second Amendment (to see a copy of NRA’s brief, please click here).

Support for incorporation of the Second Amendment is very strong, and numerous additional briefs have recently been filed and signed by both federal and state officials.

Briefs were filed by an overwhelming, bipartisan majority of members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, a large bipartisan group of state legislators and other elected officials from all 50 states, and more than three-fourths of state attorneys general.  All are supporting the NRA’s position that the Second Amendment is incorporated against the states through the Fourteenth Amendment.

The NRA is gratified that so many members of Congress and such a large number of state legislators and state attorneys general have joined this historic effort in support of our Second Amendment freedoms.  Along with gun owners everywhere, we are grateful for their participation in ensuring that the Second Amendment applies across the nation—not just in federal enclaves—and look forward to the case moving forward.

Rest assured we will continue to update you on the case as it progresses.

Copyright 2010, National Rifle Association of America, Institute for Legislative Action.

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U.S. Supreme Court Grants NRA Motion For

Divided Argument In McDonald v. City of Chicago

On Monday, January 25, the U.S. Supreme Court granted NRA’s motion to allow it to participate in the upcoming oral argument in McDonald v. City of Chicago.

“We are pleased with the Court’s decision to grant our motion,” said NRA-ILA Executive Director Chris W. Cox.  “NRA’s solitary goal in McDonald is to ensure that our fundamental, individual right to keep and bear arms applies to every law-abiding American in every state.  We are hopeful that the Court will share our view that the Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment clearly intended to apply the Second Amendment to the states.”

Last September, the Court agreed to consider the McDonald case, on appeal from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. That court incorrectly claimed that prior Supreme Court precedent prevented it from holding in favor of incorporation of the Second Amendment.  NRA believes the Seventh Circuit should have followed the lead of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision in Nordyke v. King, which found that Supreme Court precedent does not prevent the Second Amendment from applying to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause.  As a party in McDonald, NRA looks forward to participating in the upcoming oral argument.

Former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement will be representing NRA at oral argument, which will occur on March 2.  The NRA chose Solicitor General Clement for oral argument in this case because he is one of the leading Supreme Court advocates of our time and has argued dozens of cases before the Court.  In the case at hand, he has already represented 251 members of the U.S. House of Representatives and 58 U.S. Senators in filing an historic and very important friend of the court brief, which makes a strong and effective case in favor of incorporation.  Now that he is representing the NRA, he will just as strongly represent the interests of NRA members and all other Americans who believe the Second Amendment should apply equally throughout our nation.  (A link to the congressional brief can be found here:  http://www.nraila.org/media/PDFs/litigation/mcdonald_ac_congress..pdf)

During oral argument, Solicitor General Clement will ensure that the Court hears all the arguments for applying the Second Amendment to the states under the Fourteenth Amendment.  The Court could reach that result either through the Privileges or Immunities Clause (as the plaintiffs in the case have emphasized), or through the Due Process Clause (as the Supreme Court has chosen to apply nearly all of the other provisions of the Bill of Rights).  The NRA’s solitary goal in this case is to ensure that the Supreme Court applies the Second Amendment to all Americans throughout the country, no matter which method the Court chooses to use.

As a party to the case, NRA also had the opportunity to file a reply brief to Chicago’s arguments.  That effort was led by Stephen Poss and Kevin Martin of the firm Goodwin Procter, along with Stephen Halbrook and Solicitor General Clement.  A link to the NRA’s reply brief, which was filed today, can be found here.  

Copyright 2010, National Rifle Association of America, Institute for Legislative Action.

This may be reproduced. It may not be reproduced for commercial purposes.

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