John Paul Stevens: Rewrite the Constitution to Ban GunsTo the man once known as the "Chief Justice of the Liberal Supreme Court," America's Constitution is an outdated and flawed document that needs fixing.
Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens says he'd make at least six changes to the Constitution, two of which are (so predictably) related to guns. Of course he'd abolish the death penalty (although not for unborn children), limit spending on elections (especially those mean old Republicans), and end the practice of gerrymandering.
The profound ideas are part of his new book, "Six Amendments: How and Why We Should Change the Constitution." Stevens, 94, uses the tome to rewrite (or eliminate) Supreme Court decisions on which he dissented.
Stevens would alter the Second Amendment to allow gun control (he was on the losing end of a 5-4 decision, District of Columbia v. Heller, in which the court declared Americans have a right to own guns for self-defense). He would make it clear that only a state's militia, not citizens, has a constitutional right to bear arms. The alteration, he said, would allow lawmakers to ban gun ownership altogether.
But he's not optimistic the idea will go anywhere.
"I'd think the chance of changing the Second Amendment is pretty remote," Stevens told the Associated Press. "The purpose is to cause further reflection over a period of time because it seems to me with ample time and ample reflection, people in the United States would come to the same conclusion that people in other countries have."
Stevens would also have a constitutional amendment to allow Congress to force states to participate in the gun checks (he was again on the losing side of Printz v. United States, in which the court voted 5-4 to ban forced federal gun checks).
Appointed by President Gerald Ford in 1975, Stevens went on to become one of the court's most liberal members. The court ruled contrary to his opinion often, so Stevens came up with the six amendments to fix what he considers mistakes (never mind that the Constitution has been amended just 18 times since the Founding Fathers wrote the charter).
On gerrymandering, Stevens' amendment would require that congressional and state districts be "compact and composed of contiguous territory." And he objects to recent rulings that struck down federal limits on political contributions by wealthy individuals, saying they were "not about electing your representative."
"It's about financing the election of representatives of other people. It's about the influence of out-of-state voters on the election in your district. It sort of exposes a basic flaw in the recent cases," he told the AP.
Stevens predicts that some big issues will soon come before the court, according to USA Today.
Among the issues to watch for, he said, are a constitutional right to same-sex marriage ('Sooner or later, they'll have to address the question'), gun control ([Justice Antonin] Scalia's 2008 opinion protecting handguns in the home won't be the final word), and government surveillance programs, which Stevens defends as constitutional.
http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/john-paul-stevens-rewrite-constitution-ban-guns
