Supreme Court rules that Second Amendment applies to state and local governments

Today, the Supreme Court issues its long-awaited decision in McDonald v. Chicago, the Chicago gun ban case, ruling that the Second Amendment applies not only to the federal government, but to state and local governments as well.

Read the Court's ruling here.

Justice Alito wrote the majority decision, joined by Chief Justice Roberts, and Justices Scalia, Thomas, and Kennedy. Justices Stevens, Breyer, Ginsburg, and Sotomayor dissented.

As expected, the Court incorporated the Second Amendment using the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process clause, rather than the Privileges and Immunities clause advocated by plaintiffs' attorney Alan Gura (the plaintiffs were the petitioners at the Supreme Court, having lost in the lower courts).

Some good news to start the week.