Let’s defeat some stereotypes about the backgrounds the kind of people who support gun rights come from.
- Our Heller opinion writer, Justice Scalia, is the son of Italian immigrants. Born in Trenton, New Jersey and raised in New York City, and graduated from a Roman Catholic High School. Graduated summa cum laude from Georgetown, and went on to Harvard Law School. He was nominated to The Court by Ronald Reagan.
- Joining in the opinion is fellow Italian-American, Justice Alito, who was also born in Trenton, New Jersey, and raised in Hamilton Township, just outside of Trenton. He attended Princeton University, and Yale Law school. He is a Roman Catholic. He was nominated to The Court by George W. Bush.
- Justice Kennedy comes to us from the number one Brady ranked state of California. He attended Stanford University, with his law degree coming from Harvard. He is also, along with our previous two justices, a Roman Catholic. He was nominated to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals by Gerald Ford, who also nominated Justice Stevens to the Supreme Court. He was nominated to the Supreme Court by Ronald Reagan.
- Justice Thomas is from Georgia. In addition to being an African-American, he is also a Roman Catholic. He attended the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachuetts, and helped found the Black Student Union at that school. He went on to Yale Law school. He was put on the Supreme Court to fill the vacancy left by Thurgood Marshall b George H.W. Bush.
- Chief Justice Roberts was born in Buffalo, New York. He is Czech on his maternal side, and his father was an executive with Bethlehem Steel. The Roberts family grew up in Indiana. He attended a Catholic boarding school in LaPorte, Indiana, and attended Harvard College, and eventually went on to Harvard Law. After serving as Deputy Soliciter General in the first Bush Administration, he was appinted by the same administration to the D.C. court of appeals, and finally the Chief Justice by the second Bush Adminsitration.  He is a Roman Catholic.
The backgrounds of these men are as varied as one can imagine, except for the fact that they are all Roman Catholic. Alito and Scalia have chewed much of the same ground I have. I live ten minutes away from Trenton, and grew up not far from here. This is the last place you’d imagine that two out of the give majority justices would be from, but there you go.
I’m sorry to say my religion’s representives failed America (Breyer and Ginsburg). I’m not surprised. The majority of Jews love gun control, big government, and socialism, and are terrified of freedom and independence. That is why I don’t belong to a synagoge anymore; I couldn’t take being surrounded by so many liberal idiots. I was a member of a reformed congregation.
All the Jews I know are better armed than I am :)
They must be conservative or orthodox. The reformed jews I was raised with were very anti-gun. Maybe it was the location (Kenneth Israel on york road in Cheltenham). The reformed synagogues in Atlanta have very similar attitudes.
They are indeed conservative. I don’t know any reform jews.
“This is the last place you’d imagine that two out of the give majority justices would be from, but there you go.”
I’d venture to guess the area (and it’s attitudes towards guns) was far different when they were growing up than it is now.
I am another anomoly – a NJ Jew who supports RTKBA. I was ambushed during Thanksgiving dinner last year by a liberal friend and his family after I told them about my views. But I bided my time, waiting for Heller. The day finally arrived and I sent a pointed email to the offender asking for protection from the cowardly, self-hating Jews. Well, I guess I will ahve to find another place for dinner next year : )
mike w.: Spot on. Scalia carried his target rifle to and from school in the NYC subway system, something that became illegal in 1969 as I recall from a short bio on him.
This is not surprising, considering that most of the principles on which are country was founded stem from the 11th century papal revolt. Were it not for Catholics, our Protestant founding fathers may never have been exposed to the ideas that shaped their revolution. This is not meant to disparage other Judeo-Christian traditions, but as a second generation Catholic Italian-American, I give a greasy-haired head-nod to my pisans on the bench…
I remember Dave Kopel did an excellent piece called “The Catholic Second Amendment,” or something similar, that outlines the development of natural rights and social contract. I swear I just saw a blogger link this in the past few days…