Graveyards, DeGaulle observed, are filled with indispensable men. The same may be said of those places where ex-Supreme Court justices go, those who saw truth and justice perverted, then retired in disgust.
The Phantom has just taken the time to read Heller vs District of Columbia, the gun law case which consummated the NRA's thirty year quest to define a Constitutional right for individual, private gun ownership.
The prevailing opinion, 28 pages of obfuscation, dissembling, intellectual masturbation written by Justice Antonin Scalia is thoroughly demolished by Justice John Paul Stevens in a methodical, withering, devastating dissent.
The Phantom wondered how Justice Scalia could have had the temerity to actually appear in court having been so thoroughly exposed by Justice Stevens. But then, on reflection it occurred to the Phantom Justice Scalia cannot be embarrassed. He is concerned here only with the outcome, and he is in the majority with those other borderline personalities: Justices Thomas, Alito, Roberts and Kennedy.
The wonder is that Justice Scalia felt it necessary to even try to construct even the transparently bogus rationalization he attempted. He invokes clauses, analyses of grammar,semantics, imputations and disputation of history--the real wonder is he did not invoke the Holy Spirit as his source of enlightenment. Mr. Scalia is very heavy on invoking the rights of "the people" but he is quick to dispel any notions of who he regards as real "people:" felons and other undesirables (implied perhaps, homosexuals, homo sapiens of a liberal persuasion, atheists, free love advocates) need not apply. Licenses to carry guns may be denied some of the people, just not those upright citizens like Aryan nation adherents, off the grid enthusiasts, sportsmen, citizens who live in fear of home invasions, homicidal maniacs are protected as "the people" in the 2nd amendment.
One wonders why he simply did not say, "I just asked myself--What would Jesus do?" and be done with it.
Not that it mattered for the practical outcome--the NRA got its victory and now we really will have to pry their guns from the cold dead fingers of those who worship at the alter of Sig Sauer, Smith and Wesson and Glock. But for those sentient beings who still breathe the polluted air, corrupted by the perversions and depredations exhaled by Justices Scalia/Thomas/Roberts/Alito/Kennedy, there is the fresh, oxygenated current which rafts across the country from the eloquent and passionate opinion from
Justice Stevens. It should be taught in every school across the fruited plains as an example of clarity of thought, precision in language and moral rectitude.
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