@WestergrenJon "The second amendment does not give you an unconditional right to own a weapon."
Correct.
My weapon gives me an unconditional right to own a weapon.
@JHU_CGVS Actually lenient treatment of violent offenders is what fuels the highly clustered local extremes that skew our nation's otherwise low homicide rates.
Today the Supreme Court granted a remarkably well drafted pro se petition for certiorari. (It was so good, in fact, that his reply brief was written by Davis Polk's Masha Hansford.) Read the pro se brief here: https://t.co/rOQ8tzcc5q
A: Guns that are too accurate/easy to aim and therefore provide a gunman too much lethality when picking people off in a crowd.
B: Guns that are not accurate enough for sporting use and therefore are only useful to gunmen indiscriminately spraying rounds into a crowd.
C: Goldilocks guns that are perfectly fine for Americans to own.
@mikevolpe@snowedinn1982@AGHamilton29 The most direct similarity would be to Thurgood Marshall's son serving as an advisor to the Senate during his tenure on the Court. A more recent example than the Clarks.
Legal scholars have had decades to examine this particular arrangement and they have. It's a good question.
But I fall on the side that if his son is occupying a role very distant and downstream from litigation (he advises on policy to the legislature and admin rulemakers), then there's no problem.
https://t.co/hWxCj81n2n
For the direct insinuations of nepotism, we can point out a lot more recent examples of familial relations occupying potentially nepotistic roles without a big hullaballo of impropriety. James Comey's daughter worked for the DOJ during her father's tenure at FBI. Was this problematic?
I wpuld agree that Alito would begin to have an appearance of impropriety should his son get involved directly in federal litigation. Alito would have to recuse in these circumstances.
I would also be suspicious if the role Alito's son was in was a sinecure of some sort. I've seen nothing to indicate that Phillip is not particularly qualified for this specialized role. This would be more of an accusation of nepotism.