You and I know that it is extremely important that a Supreme Court justice understand and appreciate the origin and meaning of the Second Amendment, a constitutional guarantee permanently enshrined in the Bill of Rights. The record of Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, on the Second Amendment should causes cause every patriotic American grave concern over her treatment of this enumerated constitutional right.
Last year, the Supreme Court decided the landmark case District of Columbia v. Heller, holding that the Second Amendment guarantees to all law-abiding, responsible citizens the individual right to keep and bear arms, particularly for self-defense. Following Heller, the Supreme Court is almost certain to decide next year whether the Second Amendment applies to states and local governments, as it does to the federal government (see NRA v. Chicago and McDonald v. Chicago.)
While sitting as a federal judge on the Second Circuit Appeals Court, Judge Sotomayor revealed her views on the right to keep and bear arms in Maloney v. Cuomo, a case decided after Heller, yet holding that the Second Amendment is NOT a fundamental right, that it does NOT apply to the states, and that if an object is "designed primarily as a weapon" then that is a sufficient basis for total prohibition -- even within the home!
Earlier, in a 2004 case, United States v. Sanchez-Villar, Sotomayor and two colleagues perfunctorily dismissed a Second Amendment claim, holding that "the right to possess a gun is clearly not a fundamental right." Imagine if such a view were expressed about other fundamental rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights, such as the First, Fourth and Fifth Amendments!
Call, email or fax your Senator to vote “NO” on Sotomayor
United States Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121
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