During 2010 confirmation hearings for her nomination to the Supreme Court of the United States, then-nominee Elena Kagan responded in the affirmative when asked if the “fundamental right” to go ownership is “settled law.”
In fact, Kagan said there is “no doubt” such law is settled.
According to the The New York Sun, Kagan was responding to a question from Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) when she said these things.
Leahy asked:
Is there any doubt after the Court’s decision in Heller and McDonald that the Second Amendment to the Constitution secures a fundamental right for an individual to own a firearm, use it for self-defense in their home?
Kagan responded:
There is no doubt, Senator Leahy. That is binding precedent entitled to all the respect of binding precedent in any case. So that is settled law.
District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) was the SCOTUS decision that struck down the Washington DC handgun ban on the grounds that it violated the individual right to keep and bear arms. Breitbart News previously reported that late Justice Anotonin Scalia wrote the majority opinion for the Heller decision, in which he explained that the phraseology in the Second Amendment–particularly the “right of the people”–was an unambiguous reference to individual rights every time it appeared in the Bill of Rights.
McDonald v. Chicago (2010) was the SCOTUS decision that struck down the Chicago gun ban on the grounds that the individual rights protected by the Second Amendment–the right to keep and bear arms, the right to self-defense, etc–were incorporated under the Fourteenth Amendment. Such incorporation means the Bill of Rights not only prevents the federal government from violating Second Amendment rights, but binds the hands of governments at the state level as well.
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.