The Volokh Conspiracy - "Our Supreme Court [Is] in Alliance With the [Murderers]":

"It's just completely befuddling that our Supreme Court would be in alliance with the [criminals]," a government official said about the Court's Confrontation Clause case, in which the Justices held that the Confrontation Clause required the reversal of a murder conviction.

A pretty poor argument, it seems to me: The point of the Confrontation Clause is to protect everyone, and while it unfortunately sometimes (in fact, disproportionately) protects criminals and even murderers, it hardly means that the Court is in "alliance" with the murderers. Even if you agree with the minority and think the majority got it wrong, that just means the majority Justices are unnecessarily doing something that will unfortunately help some criminals; it hardly makes them the criminals' "alli[es]." Many politicians and others (mostly conservatives as to the criminal procedure amendments, I should note) make this mistake. But it's still a serious mistake.

But whoops, actually that isn't exactly what the government official -- Oak Park, Illinois Village Manager Tom Barwin -- said. Rather, he said (in a National Public Radio interview Sunday), "It's just completely befuddling that our Supreme Court would be in alliance with the gangbangers," and of course he was talking about the Court's Second Amendment.

If anything, that's an even weaker argument: Gangbangers are even less the beneficiaries of the Court's Second Amendment decision than criminals are of the Court's Confrontation Clause case. While the Confrontation Clause protects the innocent as well as the guilty, realistically the majority of the people who'd be prosecuted even without it would likely be guilty. (That's not a reason to reject it, of course.) But the overwhelming majority of all handgun owners are law-abiding citizens, not gangbangers; and because gangbangers are willing to violate all sorts of criminal laws, it's not even the case that a handgun ban affects them much.

Still, that seems to be the mayor's view: Enforce what you see (quite plausibly) as an expressly secured constitutional right -- a right that millions of law-abiding citizens take advantage of -- and you're "in alliance with the gangbangers." Not just someone who mistakenly does something that will help criminals (a plausible criticism, though one I disagree with), but the gangbangers' ally. A pretty poor argument, it seems to me.

	[Eugene Volokh, July 1, 2008 at 1:47pm] Trackbacks "Our Supreme Court [Is] in Alliance With the [Murderers]": "It's just completely befuddling that our Supreme Court would be in alliance with the [criminals]," a government official said about the Court's Confrontation Clause case, in which the Justices held that the Confrontation Clause required the reversal of a murder conviction. A pretty poor argument, it seems to me: The point of the Confrontation Clause is to protect everyone, and while it unfortunately sometimes (in fact, disproportionately) protects criminals and even murderers, it hardly means that the Court is in "alliance" with the murderers. Even if you agree with the minority and think the majority got it wrong, that just means the majority Justices are unnecessarily doing something that will unfortunately help some criminals; it hardly makes them the criminals' "alli[es]." Many politicians and others (mostly conservatives as to the criminal procedure amendments, I should note) make this mistake. But it's still a serious mistake. But whoops, actually that isn't exactly what the government official -- Oak Park, Illinois Village Manager Tom Barwin -- said. Rather, he said (in a National Public Radio interview Sunday), "It's just completely befuddling that our Supreme Court would be in alliance with the gangbangers," and of course he was talking about the Court's Second Amendment. If anything, that's an even weaker argument: Gangbangers are even less the beneficiaries of the Court's Second Amendment decision than criminals are of the Court's Confrontation Clause case. While the Confrontation Clause protects the innocent as well as the guilty, realistically the majority of the people who'd be prosecuted even without it would likely be guilty. (That's not a reason to reject it, of course.) But the overwhelming majority of all handgun owners are law-abiding citizens, not gangbangers; and because gangbangers are willing to violate all sorts of criminal laws, it's not even the case that a handgun ban affects them much. Still, that seems to be the mayor's view: Enforce what you see (quite plausibly) as an expressly secured constitutional right -- a right that millions of law-abiding citizens take advantage of -- and you're "in alliance with the gangbangers." Not just someone who mistakenly does something that will help criminals (a plausible criticism, though one I disagree with), but the gangbangers' ally. A pretty poor argument, it seems to me.