Are you reading this, Justice Alito?

This blog started as a joke after I realised that my dog has been in more courtrooms than Harriet Miers. No joke. Ask Arnie Silverstein and his partner; they will verify this. There is a District Justice in Montgomery County who also knows I come to court because she brings her dog as well. So, there are dogs out there who have been in Court more than some Judicial nominees, but that is not the point.

Neither is the point that I find this blog comes out top in the search results when I google certain subjects.

I do this for myself, but I wouldn't mind the recognition. Or money. Michael is truly a slacker given that friends he went to school with are in positions of power: Governors, Judges, Presidential advisors, or high government officials. No, Michael is the honest lawyer, which means he is BROKE .

The real point is that in conversations and my early blogs, I pointed out that Justice Alito was on the three judge panel that decided U.S. v. Rybar,103 F.3d 273 (3d Cir. 1996). That was the case which earned him the nickname "machinegun Sammy". But, I have been pointing out as frequently as I can that this case addressed the personal right interpretation of the Second Amendment which was raised as a defence by Rybar. The Rybar court held that the Second Amendment was a collective right, which means that it is to ensure the efficacy of the Militia institution set up under Article I, Section 8.

Justice Alito did dissent, but he did so in a manner similar to Justice Kennedy did in US v Lopez, 514 U.S. 549 (1995) which was to say that he would have found the machinegun statute constitutional had Congress provided a finding that these items were in interstate commerce.

Now, I have raised the question whether this means that Justice Alito follows the collective right interpretation of the Second Amendment whenever I can. I am also curious if stare decisis precludes Justice Alito from taking the individual right interpretation, which most commentators are not sure. I would like to think that it does. Or, failing that, I would like to think that Justice Alito is what I consider a true conservative rather than the idiots who call themselves conservative these days. This means that Justice Alito knows the accepted judicial interpretation of the Second Amendment, which is that it is to ensure the efficacy of the militia set up under Article I, Section 8 and has nothing to do with self-defence, hunting, or shooting sports in general.

It is even sillier to say it has something to do with the ability to revolt against a "tyrannical government".

As I have before, none of those concepts are mentioned in the Second Amendment, and the right of revolt is totally ridiculous as it goes against everything in the Constitution.

I know people who know Justice Alito and they say he is a very intelligent and considered judge. I would like to think that he is not swayed by poor arguments such as the majority of people believe that the Second Amendment guarantees a personal right to things which are not within the scope of that Amendment (self-defence, hunting, shooting sports in general, or "revolt"). It is fallacious reasoning to be swayed by numbers especially when those numbers are wrong.

I read the briefs for Heller that argue the personal right and I see fallacious arguments, false history, misquotations,and so on. The fact is that the Second Amendment has been interpreted as being related to the preservation or efficiency of a well-regulated militia.


The court denied Rybar's motion to dismiss Counts I and III.
The court held that section 922(o) was "a valid exercise of the
authority granted to Congress under the Commerce Clause" and was
compatible with Second Amendment protections "because this
defendant's possession of a machine gun was not reasonably
related to the preservation or efficiency of a well-regulated
militia."

OK, that may not be the best excerpt from the Rybar decision, but it makes my point.

Please, Justice Alito, you have shown reason in interpretation of the Second Amendment in the past. I hope that you can persuade the other justices that the Personal right interpretation is fallacious and dangerous to society.

You are being "dogged" in this regard.

Note: I just googled "Justice Alito Rybar" and this came up toward the front of the results! I hope Justice Alito reads this!