Post-Heller Second Amendment Lawsuits: Lyle Denniston reports over at SCOTUSblog on the five Second Amendment lawsuits filed by the NRA last Friday, June 27, 2008. The lawsuits attack the constitutionality of gun control laws adopted in California and Illinois. Denniston's post provides links to each of the NRA's complaints. According to Denniston, each case addresses an issue that has not been before the U.S. Supreme Court since 1894 - whether the Second Amendment is applicable to state and local governments through the Fourteenth Amendment. In 1894, the Supreme Court stated the Second Amendment applied only to the federal government. However, a district court may find reasoning to overturn that decision, Miller v. Texas, based on the language used by Scalia'a majority opinion in Heller.

Legal Guidance for Detainee Review: Dan Slater at Wall Street Journal Blog has a post on the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit's opinion that provides guidance for federal district court judges who are about to begin reviewing the government's evidence against the Gitmo detainees. Last Monday, the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit released an opinion ordering a new military hearing for detainee Huzaifa Parhat. Today's opinion, a partially-redacted version of the original, compares the government’s legal reasoning with a characterfrom an 1876 Lewis Carroll poem called “The Hunting of the Snark.” Slater provides a summary of the opinion, as well as a link to the actual opinion.

Blog Commentary on E.J. Dionne's Washington Post Column: Ed Whalen at NROs Bench Memos and Jonathan Adler at Volokh Conspiracy, both address Dionne's "hallucinations" over the threat posed by a conservative U.S. Supreme Court. According to Whalen, Dionne's article,"The Court vs. Voters,", mischaraterizes the threat posed by "judges appointed during the right’s ascendancy" and ignores the threat posed by Obama's potential appointments. Adler, notes that Whalen has been "too kind" and gives a few arguments to counter Dionnes' claims. First, Adler argues we are not on the verge of a conservative Court movement to overturn "the will of Congress and local legislatures". Adler states that while the Court did overturn D.C.'s handgun ban, and a small portion of the McCain-Feingold law, a 5-4 majority also struck down federal and state legislative policy in Boumediene and Kennedy. Adler argues "it appears Dionne is only concerned about judicial invalidation of legislative policies he favors."