In Heller, the court was at least dealing with a right the Constitution actually mentions. But the majority and minority justices demonstrated that there are powerful, detailed, historically grounded “originalist” arguments for opposite understandings of what the Framers intended with that right to “keep and bear arms.”…
When rights are unambiguously enumerated, courts should protect them vigorously. But Wilkinson says that when a right’s definition is debatable, generous judicial deference should be accorded to legislative judgments — particularly those of the states, which should enjoy constitutional space to function as laboratories for testing policy variations.
Roe and Heller, says Wilkinson, diminish liberty by “handing our democratic destiny to the courts.”
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