"Gunner" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 29 Nov 2004 03:50:15 -0500, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:

What you've just quoted is exactly what I said, that the Bill of Rights
was
a limitation on the power of the FEDERAL government, not on that of the
states. Thus, in regard to the 2nd Amendment, the states could do what
they
want. That's the status of the law today.

Ed Huntress

If thats true, than any state can simply nullify, within its own
borders, the GCA 1934, 68 and so forth?

They certainly could bring a case on first principles. They'd have standing
to do so. I don't recall the history of cases brought over the GCA, but,
unless it's been decided on grounds that would shoot it down before it got
started, the S.C. might hear such a case.

The state probably would lose, IMO, because the Crick Act and the Commerce
Clause take a lot of the wind out of their sails, but it would be
interesting to see how such a case would go.


Then any state can form a mandated State Religion, legalize slavery
and ban political speech.

You should know better. The 13th Amendment ended slavery, and it explicitly
made the prohibition applicable to every person in the US. That was the
beginning of the Reconstruction Amendments' overriding of states' rights.
The states had it shoved down their throats -- or the southern states did,
anyway.

Regarding religion and speech, what you say was true until Gitlow v. New
York, 1925. That's the case that incorporated the 1st under the 14th, and
overturned state authority to regulate speech and religion. As it happens,
some of the original states *did* establish religions, or rather they
inherited religious establishment from colonial times and kept it going
after the Constitution was ratified. The issue wasn't a big one until the
Blaine Amendment. You should look that one up.

Ed Huntress