Posted by David Kopel:
Kmiec v. Kmiec regarding Heller:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2...ml#1231289178*


** Douglas Kmiec has sharply criticized the majority opinion in District
** of Columbia v. Heller. E.g., [1]Slate, July 8, 2008 (majority opinion
** amounts to unjust rule by judicial fiat); [2]Tidings, July 11, 2008
** (Heller majority misconstrued the Second Amendment, had no basis in
** "Constitutional text, history, and precedent", and also violated the
** "long-standing teaching of the American Catholic bishops".) See also
** [3]Slate, March 17, 2008 (Second Amendment's anti-tyranny purpose is
** obsolete, and the Court should not create a new purpose for the
** Amendment).
** Contrast the viewpoint in these articles with that of an amicus brief
** filed in support of Heller, and in opposition to the District of
** Columbia:

**** Amici believe that the Amendment secures to individuals a personal
**** right to keep and bear arms and that the decision below correctly
**** interpreted and applied the Amendment in this case....If the Second
**** Amendment does secure an individual right, then this case lies
**** within its very core. For if that right means anything, it surely
**** protects the right of a law-abiding citizen to keep an ordinary
**** handgun in his own home for self defense. The District of
**** Columbia's laws prohibit this, and so are to that extent
**** unconstitutional.

** That amicus brief was the filed by "Former Senior Officials of the
** Department of Justice in Support of Respondent." The Appendix provides
** a list of "Amici Curiae in Support of Respondent." The amici list
** states: "Douglas W. Kmiec served as Assistant Attorney General for the
** Office of Legal Counsel from 1988 to 1989."
** It seems odd for a legal scholar to reverse his view of a major
** constitutional issue so completely and so vehemently in a such a short
** period of time, especially without an expalanation of how he came to
** the conclusion that his former view was so utterly mistaken--or
** without even an acknowledgement that he recently held his former view
** so firmly that he urged the Supreme Court to adopt it.

References

** 1. http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/con...enhanced.aspx*
** 2. http://www.the-tidings.com/2008/071108/kmiec.htm*
** 3. http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/con...lescence.aspx*