From SAF: The nomination of Second Circuit Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor to replace retiring Justice David Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court is a slap at gun rights and the Second Amendment, the Second Amendment Foundation said today. Judge Sotomayor, a New York native, ruled on a Second Circuit Appeals Court panel that the Second Amendment is not a fundamental right and does not apply to the states in the case of Maloney v. Cuomo. This ruling is in direct conflict with a Ninth Circuit Court ruling in the Nordyke v. King case in California that the Second Amendment is incorporated through the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment... Incorporation may be taken up by the high court during its next session beginning in October, because attorneys in the Maloney case plan to appeal in late June. "If the Maloney appeal is accepted by the Supreme Court," Gottlieb wondered, "would Justice Sotomayor - provided she is confirmed - recuse herself from deliberations?" ... (Let's see: Chances of Sotomayor not being confirmed - almost nil. Chances that Sotomayor would have to recuse herself in Maloney v. King [and other cases on which she has previously ruled] - better than even. Hmm.) http://www.saf.org/viewpr-new.asp?id=296 ...Since the Heller decision, only two federal appeals courts have written on the Second Amendment. That's six judges out of about 170. Of those six, three said the Second Amendment does apply to the states. And those judges were out of the liberal Ninth Circuit in California, and included a judge appointed by Bill Clinton and another appointed by Jimmy Carter. - Even leftist judges can get this. But not Judge Sonia Sotomayor. She is one of only three federal appellate judges in America to issue a court opinion saying that the Second Amendment does not apply to states. The case was Maloney v. Cuomo, and it came down this past January. That means if Chicago, or even the state of Illinois or New York, wants to ban you from owning any guns at all, even in your own house, that's okay with her. According to Judge Sotomayor, if your state or city bans all guns the way Washington, D.C. did, that's okay under the Constitution... http://foxforum.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/05/26/blackwell_ken_obama_sotomayor/ ...Equally troubling is Sotomayor's record on the Second Amendment. This past January, the Second Circuit issued its opinion in Maloney v. Cuomo, which Sotomayor joined, ruling that the Second Amendment does not apply against state and local governments. At issue was a New York ban on various weapons, including nunchucks. After last year's District of Columbia v. Heller, which struck down DC's handgun ban, attention turned to whether state and local gun control laws might violate the Second Amendment as well... http://reason.com/news/show/133722.html ...This isn't a jurisprudence that the Founders would recognize, but it is the creative view that has dominated the law schools since the 1970s and from which both the President and Judge Sotomayor emerged. In the President's now-famous word, judging should be shaped by "empathy" as much or more than by reason. In this sense, Judge Sotomayor would be a thoroughly modern Justice, one for whom the law is a voyage of personal identity... http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124338457658756731.html#mod=djemEditorialPage ...But the nominee should answer questions about her judicial philosophy. Mr. Obama has the prerogative of nomination, but the confirmation process serves as an important check on whether a nominee's philosophy is acceptable to the American people. Even with a strongly Democratic Senate, the process should be more than a rubber stamp. The stakes are high when we give a person life tenure to decide some of the most important issues facing our country. Here are some questions for Ms. Sotomayor.. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124338359957256605.html#mod=djemEditorialPage ...Even the liberal establishment worries that Judge Sotomayor tilts too far to the left. New Republic essayist Jeffrey Rosen reports that fellow liberals who have watched or worked with her closely "expressed questions about her temperament, her judicial craftsmanship, and... [they have said] she is 'not that smart and kind of a bully on the bench.' " A suspiciously high number of her decisions have been overruled by higher courts. Wendy Long of the Judicial Confirmation Network said that record shows "she is far more of a liberal activist than even the current liberal activist Supreme Court." ... http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/may/27/a-judge-too-far/ ...President Obama nominated federal judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court yesterday, putting her in line to become the nation's first Hispanic justice and creating a difficult political equation for Republicans as they weigh how aggressively to fight her appointment. An all-out assault on Sotomayor by Republicans could alienate both Latino and women voters, deepening the GOP's problems after consecutive electoral setbacks. But sidestepping a court battle could be deflating to the party's base and hurt efforts to rally conservatives going forward... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/26/AR2009052601313.html?hpid=topnews ...But Hispanic ethnicity didn't stop Senate Democrats, then in the minority, from spending 28 months successfully blocking Honduran-born Miguel Estrada's 2001 nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit by President Bush. Estrada's life story was inspiring too. Knowing little English, he immigrated to America at 17 to join his mother after his parents' divorce. A few years later, he was graduating with honors from both Columbia and Harvard Law. A November 2001 internal memo from the staff of current Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin, D-Ill., explained that Estrada was "dangerous" owing to his "minimal paper trail, he is Latino and the White House seems to be grooming him for a Supreme Court appointment." ... http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=328229941213971 ...Much is being made of the fact that Sonia Sotomayor had to struggle to rise in the world. But stop and think. If you were going to have open heart surgery, would you want to be operated on by a surgeon who was chosen because he had to struggle to get where he is or by the best surgeon you could find - even if he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and had every advantage that money and social position could offer? If it were you who was going to be lying on that operating table with his heart cut open, you wouldn't give a tinker's damn about somebody's struggle or somebody else's privileges. The Supreme Court of the United States is in effect operating on the heart of our nation - the Constitution and the statutes and government policies that all of us must live under... http://townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/2009/05/27/sotomayor__empathy_in_action?page=full --- What's the Big Deal?: ...A new law passed by Congress and signed by President Obama last week will allow guns in the parks and national wildlife refuges. Attached as an amendment to an overhaul of credit card rules, the law will take effect next year. Fine-print rules, allowing both concealed and openly carried weapons, are now being written at the Department of the Interior, which runs the parks system... Park rangers and volunteers said they were not sure whether gun possession in the park would increase or not when the new law takes effect, partly because they have no idea how many visitors are illegally carrying concealed weapons now. Hardly anyone is ever caught, though current law requires owners to lock or store their guns in a trunk or glove box while in the parks. "If a person is going to bring a weapon in here, they'll do it whether there's a law or not," said Major Sansam, a seasonal volunteer at Rocky Mountain National Park, the seventh-most popular in the system, with about 2.8 million visits last year... http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/27/us/27guns.html?_r=1&ref=us --- Concealed Carry Does Not Increase Violence: The last state mandated report from the Ohio attorney general showed nearly 143,000 concealed handgun licenses had been issued in the Buckeye State since the program's inception in 2004. Considering the substantial increase for 2008 over the previous year, it is safe to assume that the number is over 150,000 by now. When concealed carry was being considered, those opposed to such licensing claimed that it would lead to shootouts over soccer matches and fender benders, that CCW holders would be dropping their guns at the mall leading to accidental discharges, that cops would be killed during routine traffic stops and that violence in Ohio would skyrocket. Five years later, that still hasn't happened. So why haven't more guns led to more violence? ... http://www.examiner.com/x-2206-Cleveland-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m5d26-Why-concealed-handguns-dont-result-in-blood-running-in-the-streets --- Open-Cary Day in Alaska: Today is Open Carry Day on the Kenai Peninsula. The event is being sponsored by the Second Amendment Task Force of the Kenai Peninsula. One of the organizers is Scott Hamann of Nikiski. He explained that, too often, weapons are portrayed in a negative light through the media. He said today's event is to help show the positive aspects of guns. He said the event would start at the parking lot of Borough Hall in Soldotna at 2:30 p.m. He said those involved with the event would frequent several establishments as the carry their weapons. Congressman Don Young will also be participating in the event. An open carry day has previously taken place in Fairbanks. The Fairbanks event was also attended by Congressman Don Young, wearing a sidearm. http://www.ksrm.com/ksrm/news.asp?newsID=6936 --- New Yorkers Rally against Ammo Registration: Demonstrators called the event a civil rights rally Tuesday night. "We don't want our privacy violated to be in this database. We don't want local government or law enforcement knowing what we're buying, how much we're buying," said rally organizer Brian Belz. They are against a proposed law in Albany County that would require people to show their gun license when buying ammunition for handguns, and a driver's license or other ID for ammunition for rifles. The rally took place just before a public hearing in front of the Legislature. "You have to stop looking at the average gun owner as a criminal. That's what laws like this do. It makes common, everyday citizens criminals, pre-crime," said one resident speaking at the hearing... http://wnyt.com/article/stories/S949067.shtml?cat=300 --- Florida Governor to Protect CWFL Funds: The $66.5 billion state budget Gov. Charlie Crist will sign Wednesday is likely to appease at least one vocal Florida constituency: gun owners. Crist will sign a budget balanced with $2 billion in tax and fee increases, including a dollar-a-pack increase in the cigarette tax, the first such tax hike since 1990. But he plans to veto a $6 million transfer, or what critics call a raid, on a fund backed by fees that people pay to seek or renew their concealed weapons permits, which are valid for seven years.... http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/gubernatorial/article1004559.ece --- Rule Four Reminder: A good portion of South Greer was blocked off by police as they investigated what happened when an officer responded to a dogs loose call Tuesday morning. Somehow two dogs at 111 Greer got loose, A pit bull puppy and full adult pitbull. "He did see two dogs running down the sidewalk. He attempted to pick up the puppy. That's when he was charged at by the adult dog," says Monique Martin with Memphis Police. Police say the officer fired his shotgun several times at the aggressive adult dog. Neither dog was hit, but a neighbor across the street on his porch was. "It appears one of the pellets ricocheted. That debris struck him in the thumb." says Martin. The neighbor was taken to the hospital after his thumb was bandaged. He is expected to be ok... (Rule Four: Always be sure of your target and what's beyond it. While this injury proved to be minor, the incident points out the downside of shotguns launching multiple pellets outside of a confined environment.) http://www.wreg.com/wreg-mpd-shoots-dog,0,139877.story --- From AzCDL: The AzCDL Newsletter for May 2009 is available for viewing and downloading at: http://www.azcdl.org/html/newsletters.html . These alerts are a project of the Arizona Citizens Defense League (AzCDL), an all volunteer, non-profit, non-partisan grassroots organization. Join today! AzCDL - Protecting Your Freedom http://www.azcdl.org/html/accomplishments.html Copyright © 2009 Arizona Citizens Defense League, Inc., all rights reserved. -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .