U.S. Supreme Court To Hear Oral Arguments In <I>McDonald v. City of Chicago</I> Next Week

As we reported last month, on Monday, January 25, the U.S. Supreme Court granted NRA's motion to allow it to participate in the upcoming oral argument in the landmark McDonald v. City of Chicago case.

Former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement will be representing NRA at oral argument, which will occur next Tuesday, March 2.  The NRA chose Solicitor General Clement for oral argument in this case because he is one of the leading Supreme Court advocates of our time and has argued dozens of cases before the Court.  In the case at hand, he has already represented 251 members of the U.S. House of Representatives and 58 U.S. Senators in filing an historic and very important friend of the court brief, which makes a strong and effective case in favor of incorporation.  Now that he is representing the NRA, he will just as strongly represent the interests of NRA members and all other Americans who believe the Second Amendment should apply equally throughout our nation.  (A link to the congressional brief can be found here:  http://www.nraila.org/media/PDFs/litigation/mcdonald_ac_congress..pdf)

During oral argument, Solicitor General Clement will ensure that the Court hears all the arguments for applying the Second Amendment to the states under the Fourteenth Amendment.  The Court could reach that result either through the Privileges or Immunities Clause (as the plaintiffs in the case have emphasized), or through the Due Process Clause (as the Supreme Court has chosen to apply nearly all of the other provisions of the Bill of Rights).  The NRA's only goal in this case is to ensure that the Supreme Court applies the Second Amendment to all Americans throughout the country, no matter which method the Court chooses to use.