SCOTUS, Guns, and Race

Someone somewhere put this blog on a list of right wing blogs. They must not have looked at any of the blog posts. It means, among other things, that I get a lot of strange email. There has been a steady stream of daily notes in opposition to Elena Kagan's Supreme Court nomination.

Today, though, brought something new. Pajamas Media is among the organizations that have added me to their mail list. Many of their messages are clearly meant to media booking agents. This is the headline in my email today: "Armed Black Panthers Claim Another Victim." Where did that happen? Here, in Philadelphia. Read more:

On Election Day 2008, armed men wearing the uniforms and jackboots of the New Black Panther Party were posted at the entrance to a Philadelphia, PA, polling site.

Another heading further down: Rocking the Vote: Did DOJ Try to Whitewash Black Panther Intimidation Case?

Ironic that this came out the day the Supreme Court ruled on McDonald v Chicago. Here is a brief note on it from Scotuswiki:

The new lawsuits likely to develop will come against the background of a new desire, among devotees of gun rights, to carry their firearms in public places. Gun owners held a large “piece rally” in Washington recently, and many guns were holstered for the occasion, to put new emphasis on the building resistance to gun-carry restrictions. A number of gun owners showed up last summer at “Tea Party” rallies, wearing their guns. Communities that interpret the McDonald decision as being limited to having guns in the home may conclude that they can ban guns anywhere outside the home. Any ordinances to that effect, though, are surely going to be tested. (And, as Justice John Paul Stevens noted in his dissent on Monday, there is a passing hint in the Heller decision of 2008 that maybe the personal right to a gun is not limited to having it at home. In that comment, the Heller opinion said the individual right it was declaring was “a right to possess and carry weapons in case of confrontation.” Lawsuits may be needed to clarify just what that right entails.)

An article. "History justifies supreme court overturning Chicago gun ban," by Howard Nemerov on the Pajamas Media website says this: "Gun control has always been a tool of bigotry and oppression; current data shows this is still the case."

So I guess that was why it was necessary to mention jackboots and Black in the press release on the Philadelphia case?