From: Mike Godwin <mnemonic@eff.org>
Date: Fri, 28 Jan 94 18:48:21 PST
To: karn@qualcomm.com (Phil Karn)
Subject: Re: 4th ammendment and Cryptography
In-Reply-To: <199401282116.NAA11154@servo.qualcomm.com>
Message-ID: <199401290248.VAA04708@eff.org>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


 
Phil Karn writes:

> Well, according to the authors, "The courts have overwhelmingly
> supported the collective-rights interpretation" of the Second
> Amendment.

This is an overstatement. C. Kennedy is not being accurate here, since she
implies that this is settled constitutional law. In fact, it hasn't been
addressed directly.

> [...] Under the controlling authority of the only Supreme
> Court case to address the scope of the Second Amendment, US v Miller,
> the court concluded that 'the right to keep and bear handguns is not
> guaranteed by the Second Amendment'. The US Supreme Court declined to
> hear the case, letting the lower-court rulings stand."

One of the first things law students are taught is that the U.S. Supreme
Court's refusal to hear a case has no precedential authority whatsoever.


--Mike