Justice Clarence Thomas suggested on Monday that the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) tolerates requirements on the exercise of the Second Amendment that it would not allow to be applied to abortion or free speech.
The specific case, Rogers v. Grewal, centered on New Jersey’s requirement that citizens show “justifiable need” for a owning a gun before a handgun permit is issued.
Thomas dissented to SCOTUS’ rejection of the case by reasserting that the Second Amendment protects the “fundamental right…of the people to keep and bear Arms…yet in several jurisdictions throughout the country, law-abiding citizens have been barred from exercising the fundamental right to bear arms because they cannot show that they have a ‘justifiable need’ or ‘good reason’ for doing so.”
“One would think that such an onerous burden on a fundamental right would warrant this Court’s review,” Thomas said. “This Court would almost certainly review the constitutionality of a law requiring citizens to establish a justifiable need before exercising their free speech rights.”
“And it seems highly unlikely that the Court would allow a State to enforce a law requiring a woman to provide a justifiable need before seeking an abortion,” Thomas said. “But today, faced with a petition challenging just such a restriction on citizens’ Second Amendment rights, the Court simply looks the other way.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange
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