The Kritocracy of Justice Stevens

SCOTUSblog has the full decision of the court available at Heller Opinion.

Let's start with a quote from the dissent of Justice Stevens to District of Columbia v. Heller.

I do not know whether today’s decision will increase the labor of federal judges to the “breaking point” envisioned by Justice Cardozo, but it will surely give rise to a far more active judicial role in making vitally important national policy decisions than was envisioned at any time in the 18th, 19th, or 20th centuries.

The Court properly disclaims any interest in evaluating the wisdom of the specific policy choice challenged in this case, but it fails to pay heed to a far more important policy choice—the choice made by the Framers themselves. The Court would have us believe that over 200 years ago, the Framers made a choice to limit the tools available to elected officials wishing to regulate civilian uses of weapons, and to authorize this Court to use the common-law process of case-by-case judicial lawmaking to define the contours of acceptable gun control policy. Absent compelling evidence that is nowhere to be found in the Court’s opinion, I could not possibly conclude that the Framers made such a choice.

For these reasons, I respectfully dissent.

His statement, "The Court would have us believe that over 200 years ago, the Framers made a choice to limit the tools available to elected officials wishing to regulate civilian uses of weapons," demonstrates a profound ignorance of the origins of the Bill of Rights.

The Bill of Rights was not something proposed by the Framers. The Bill of Rights was forced on the Framers, because of the distrust of the power of government. The citizens of this country decided that they would only accept a government with these limitations on the government.

His bias blinds him.

.