Download the pdf here. The plaintiffs’ (opposing the ban) based their opening salvo on the 14th amendment. (You might say they played the race card, but I couldn’t possibly comment.) “In 1868, our nation made a promise to the McDonald family that they and their descendants would henceforth be American citizens, and with American citizenship came the guarantee enshrined in our Constitution that no State could make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of American citizenship. The rights so guaranteed were not trivial. The Civil War was not fought because States were attacking people on the high seas or blocking access to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. The rights secured by the Fourteenth Amendment were understood to include the fundamental rights honored by any free government and the personal guarantees of the –” And that’s it. Chief Justice Roberts cuts Alan Gura short with the usual argy-bargy about states’ rights. And then the lawyer gives freshly-minted Supreme Sotomayor a bitch slapping. So to speak . . .
Supreme Court Transcripts: Oral Arguments in McDonald v. City of Chicago Gun Ban Case
