It took less than a week, but the 7th Circuit has passed down their judgement in National Rifle Association of America v. City of Chicago [pdf]. They disagree with Nordyke and find that the 14th Amendment does not incorporate the 2nd Amendment against state and local governments.
I fully expected this. What I didn’t expect was for the 7th to so gleefully and eagerly hand the ball off to the Supreme Court, which is what they’re doing here.
Presiding Judge Easterbrook argues,
Cruikshank, Presser, and Miller rejected arguments that depended on the privileges and immunities clause of the fourteenth amendment. The Slaughter-House Cases, 83 U.S. (16 Wall.) 36 (1873), holds that the privileges and immunities clause does not apply the Bill of Rights, en bloc, to the states. [p. 2]
There’s just one little problem with that logic: this isn’t about the privileges and immunities clause, and it never was. Continued...