http://stateofthenation2012.com/?p=33701
Garland has a long record, and, among other things, it leads to the
conclusion that he would vote to reverse one of Justice Scalia’s most
important opinions, D.C. vs. Heller, which affirmed that the Second
Amendment confers an individual right to keep and bear arms.
Back in 2007, Judge Garland voted to undo a D.C. Circuit court
decision striking down one of the most restrictive gun laws in the
nation. The liberal District of Columbia government had passed a ban on
individual handgun possession, which even prohibited guns kept in one’s
own house for self-defense. A three-judge panel struck down the ban,
but Judge Garland wanted to reconsider that ruling. He voted with Judge
David Tatel, one of the most liberal judges on that court. As Dave Kopel
observed at the time,
the “[t]he Tatel and Garland votes were no surprise, since they had
earlier signaled their strong hostility to gun owner rights” in a
previous case. Had Garland and Tatel won that vote, there’s a good
chance that the Supreme Court wouldn’t have had a chance to protect the
individual right to bear arms for several more years.
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