Congressman Bob Barr, the 2008 Libertarian presidential nominee, writes in his Atlanta Journal-Constitution blog today that Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s views on the Second Amendment are "superficial and disappointing." The Libertarian Party agrees and reiterates its opposition to her nomination.
Click here to read Barr’s entry. He writes, in part:
…Sotomayor’s views of the Second Amendment’s guarantee of the right to keep and bear arms is similarly superficial and disappointing. When pressed by Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah on this issue, Sotomayor once again, and repeatedly, assured us she would “bring an open mind.” Frankly, I’m ready for a Supreme Court justice that has the judicial backbone to say they actually believe in, understand, and will actually defend – through judicial decisions – those fundamental rights guaranteed us in the Bill of Rights. I’m tired of nominees saying in effect that they will “keep an open mind” on whether we even have such fundamental rights as are specified in the Bill of Rights.
The furthest Sotomayor would go on the Second Amendment question (and Hatch did press her pretty hard, but then, true to form, backed away) was to say that if the Court ever did decide in its wisdom to incorporate the Constitution’s guarantee of the right to keep and bear arms as against state government infringement, then perhaps she might recognize it as a fundamental right! Such reasoning turns the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee that our fundamental “privileges or immunities” will be protected against infringement by the states, on its head.
With confirmation questioning like this, is it any wonder our fundamental rights – which are supposed to be guaranteed by the very Constitution judges such as Sotomayor take an oath to protect and defend — are being dramatically reduced by both the Senate and the federal judges its members confirm?
