Uncle has a good aggregator of the McDonald content (as well as the title I wished I was funny enough to think up), so hit up that link for more links to other commentary. My thoughts on McDonald are pretty simple – I’m not a lawyer or a legal scholar, I’m a guy that pulls triggers and then writes about it. So bear that in mind when reading this!
I did read the transcript yesterday, and I was most impressed with Gura’s ability to stand his ground on the P&I despite the fact that the Court basically shot P&I down in the first couple of paragraphs of transcript. His rejoinder to Justice Sotomayor was great, and I felt that his rebuttal arguments were much stronger than his initial statement. I was also impressed with Paul Clement, former Solicitor General that actually argued against Heller and was speaking on behalf of NRA in McDonald. His argument for incorporation via the Due Process clause was very well received by the Justices based on my interpretation of the transcript.
Conversely, the lawyer for Chicago had a pretty rough go of it – again, this is based on my reading of the transcript so I may inputting a little personal bias here – but I felt like he was in water that he couldn’t tread any longer and seemed rattled by the questions from the Justices.
I do concur with other, smarter, dudes though. I think that the Heller majority will hold and that we’ll have incorporation under the Due Process clause. At the ground level, a win here will mean largely the same thing that the Heller win meant: we still have a lot of work to do, but we’re moving in the right direction. I understand the desire to go for everything, but we’re not going to see a massive shift in national policy and feeling towards “shall not be infringed” over night. I’ll take a win in Heller, and I’ll take incorporation via Due Process in McDonald if that’s what we get.
I got the same impression from the transcript you did, even some of the more liberal members of the court seemed underwhelmed by the arguements put forth by the lawyer representing Chicago.
I suspect that Gura and Clement talked to each other beforehand and Gura let Clement argue the narrower due process incorporation approach while Gura swung for the fences with the Privileges and Immunities attempt at incorporation.
There is zero doubt in my mind that the Supreme Court will incorporate, the only question is the actual vote and how they write the decision. I’m thinking 6-3 or even 7-2 presuming Sotomeyer doesn’t recuse herself as she should.