The U.S. Supreme Court launches its new nine-month term on Monday with several major cases already on its schedule - involving guns, transgender rights, online pornography and more - and with the possibility of confronting legal disputes that may arise from the Nov. 5 presidential election.
The court, whose 6-3 conservative majority continues to move U.S. law rightward on a range of topics, is coming off another blockbuster term capped by its contentious July 1 ruling granting Donald Trump broad immunity from criminal prosecution for many actions taken while president.
The justices return from their summer recess under intense scrutiny by many politicians and the public not only for their legal rulings but for simmering ethics scandals, unsolved leaks of confidential information, and some public airing of differences among themselves.
“Something does feel broken,” Lisa Blatt, a lawyer who frequently argues before the court, said during an event in Washington on Tuesday. “Some of them up there - at oral arguments when I see them - they just seem visibly frustrated.”
The ghost gun thing is particularly ridiculous. You’ve always had the right to make your own firearm, and for decades the BATF has said that if a receiver (or frame, or whatever) is only 80% complete, that it’s legally not a firearm (yet). The reason it’s an issue now is that it’s finally easy enough for a regular person to make their own. Once you start regulating a block of metal–or in the case of New York, a 3D printer–as though it was a firearm, where does it realistically end? If I can pay $20,000 for a Haas 5 axis benchtop CNC mill, then a plan block of aluminum is not a ‘gun’ since I can easily mill it to be such.
Somewhere at the bottom of that slippery slope, I imagine.
There’s always going to be a threshold where things that previously weren’t problems, become problems. Imagine trying to argue that DUI laws shouldn’t exist because when you have had one beer you’re fine, but once you’ve had 20 beers now the police have a problem with it. How many beers is too many? We don’t know since that’s different for everyone- but we all agree at some point, it’s too many.
You yourself pointed this out: when such weapons weren’t easily available, they weren’t really a problem. Now that they are easily available, they’re a problem.
Eh, except you probably aren’t. Depending on the state, your size, the beer, etc., one may be enough to put you over the legal limit.
The big issue is that there’s no difference at all between a 3D printer that’s used to print cute little toys and useful household gadgets, and one that’s used to print a Glock-style frame. It’s the same printer. So it’s absolutely unreasonable to regulate all 3D printers as though they were firearms, but that’s what some states are pushing to do. The second big issue is that the BATF has had regulations for years about what part constitutes a gun, and what parts are unregulated. Now the ATF is changing the rules, and prosecuting people that relied on prior rulings before doing anything.
This is literally exactly how it works, though. There is a legal percentage threshold of blood alcohol content wherein it becomes illegal. The line there is drawn. And although where it is drawn is specific, it’s not in the same place, on a state-by-state basis.
What they said is still valid, and the point they were making aligns with yours.
That point is, in our societies, the legally mandated limit of blood alcohol content. How many beers does it take to hit that limit? Without some specific knowledge of an individual, literally no one could say with any certainty. We could make generalities:
One beer over an hour, when drank with a moderately heavy meal.
But there’s no way to say “This is too many beers!” Because it is entirely a per person situation. Hell, some people wouldn’t blow over the limit and be so drunk they can’t stand up.