Will the Supreme Court Extend the Second Amendment to States?  Lyle Denniston thinks so.  At SCOTUSblog, Denniston reports that after today's oral arguments in McDonald, et al., v. Chicago, et al. (08-1521), the Court seems likely to extend the Second Amendment beyond the federal level, based on the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment.  This was the position argued by the N.R.A's attorney, former Solicitor General Paul D. Clement, who argued the Court should allow a "carryover" into the 14th Amendment of all of the jurisprudence that develops on the Second Amendment's scope.  This argument was different than the one advanced by the Petitioner's attorney, Alan Gura.  During his time at the podium, Gura argued that the 14th Amendment's Privileges or Immunities Clause was intended to incorporate the Second Amendment to apply to the states.  According to Denniston, Gura had barely finished his opening comments before Chief Justice Roberts noted that the Court had laid that argument to rest in the SlaughterHouse Cases in 1873.  Gura's argument left Justice Scalia, the author of District of Columbia v. Heller, wondering why Gura was "asking us to overrule 140 years of prior law....unless you are bucking for a place on some law school faculty."  Clark Neily, one of the attorneys in Heller, explains why Gura's theory is correct at NRO'S Bench Memos.  Tony Mauro's Blog of Legal Times post on the McDonald argument is available here, while Mike Sacks of First One @ One First reports on the long line for McDonald's oral arguments.   

Lester Jackson, PhD Comments on Death Penalty Abolitionists:  At Homicide Survivors, Dudley Sharp posts a copy of Jackson's article, "The Sinister Secrets of Abolitionists."  In his newest piece, Jackson, a frequent commenter on the Death Penalty, writes "[t]he sinister secret of so-called 'abolitionists' is that they actually support capital punishment. The only way to deny this is to disclaim any responsibility for a premeditated government policy of extensively sacrificing the safety and lives of myriad law-abiding individuals on behalf of convicted felons, including murderers. Clearly, state policy fostering repeat crime, including murder, should be seen as capital punishment of the innocent."

States'  Law Enforcement Allocation Can Guide the Feds:  On Sentencing Law and Policy, Doug Berman posts a link and the abstract for NYU Professor Rachel E. Barkow's new article, Federalism and Criminal Law: What the Feds Can Learn from the States.  The abstract states that an enduring question of criminal law is how authority should be allocated between local, state, and federal prosecutors.  Barkow believes that the answer to solving this question may be found in examining how the states allocate law enforcement power.  Her study found that "states are virtually unanimous in their deference to local prosecutors, the small number of categories they identify for centralized authority in a state-level actor, and their support of local prosecution efforts with resources instead of direct intervention or case appropriation."