June 27: ‘Why are we so beholden to the opinions of a few men who lived long ago?’ The U.S. Supreme Court on gun control and abortion, plus other letters to the editor
: The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that gun laws must pass the test of being consistent with past historical use. The Second Amendment was passed in 1791, when “arms” were basically six guns and muskets. The Henry rifle, the first lever-action rifle, was not invented until 1860.
Supreme Court Republicans, all basically originalists, want to return everything to its original state. So New York and other states should reword their laws to meet the Second Amendment’s originalist meaning. Therefore new laws should recognize the historical right to carry any “arms” which existed when the Second Amendment was approved.Peterborough, Ont.
With a decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the conservative-dominated U.S. Supreme Court has positioned itself in opposition to majority opinion in the country. That is not a problem in principle: The U.S. Constitution, like the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, is meant to protect citizen’s freedoms from the will of passing majorities.
But what justifies the authority of such documents? Why are we so beholden to the opinions of a few men who lived long ago? Is there ever a point at which those principles are so out of line with the will of contemporary citizens that it begins to feel like a tyranny of the past?Now that the male-dominated U.S. Supreme Court has made an almost prehistoric decision, I am left wondering what U.S.
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