TexasCHLforum.com

Dave Hardy, one of the attorneys who worked on an amicus brief for the good guys, posted the following over at his blog, Of Arms and the Law:

A unique resource for Heller

Posted by David Hardy · 26 February 2008 04:25 PM
Reader Matt Carmel has created a truly unique resource for Heller, which you can download in .zip format by clicking here. Caveat: it's a 41 Meg file, even compressed as a .zip. Require Adobe Reader to use.

What it is: a spreadsheet on the briefs and, more important, a keyword searchable Adobe file, so you can just enter a word or phrase and immediately see which briefs used it. Click on the resulting index entry and up pops the brief, right at that page.

I wish there was some procedure for filing software with the Court!

PS--here's Matt's homepage. When not creating software useful in Supreme Court cases, he is a firearms instructor and FFL in Maplewood, New Jersey. Oh, and organizes sailing cruises in New York. How's that for all-around?

I would love to tinker with this, but with a dial-up connection, downloading a 41 meg file would be like the proverbial "sucking a watermelon through a straw."

I'll give it a download.

In the recent Supreme Court Case of District of Columbia v. Dick Anthony Heller, the Cato Institute filed a "friend of the court" brief in support of the Respondent (Heller).

The brief can be found here, and if an intellectual like me, it is fascinating reading, though at 43 pages it is not quick. Helps too if you know who Blackstone was, William of Orange, James II, some understanding of the English Protestant movement, William and Mary, the Glorious Revolution, and the English Bill of Rights (though these topics are not necessarily required prerequisites). You can do some background on these at wikipedia.

The brief essentially links English common law to our current understanding of the 2nd amendment; proffering that our 2nd amendment was a broadening of the English Bill of Rights which stated, "...freedom [for Protestants] to have arms for their defence, suitable to their class status and as allowed by law."

Will definitely be interested to read the final decision.