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˜ Ben Nelson
November 10, 2009 – Nebraska’s Senator Ben Nelson today reached out to members of the Congressional Sportsman’s Caucus (CSC) to join him in supporting the rights of law-abiding gun owners as a key case is considered before the Supreme Court. In a letter sent today, Senator Nelson urged CSC members to sign on to a brief in support of gun owners which will be submitted to the Supreme Court as it considers the McDonald v. City of Chicago case.
“As an avid hunter, I believe the government has a limited role in regulating the ownership of guns,” said Nelson. “I supported the Supreme Court’s decision in Heller and I hope it will reach a similar conclusion in McDonald. Today, I am reaching out to all 53 Senate members of the Congressional Sportsman’s Caucus to urge their support for law-abiding gun owners.”
The McDonald v. City of Chicago case will decide whether the Second Amendment is a fundamental individual right that applies to states in the same way the Supreme Court found that it applied to the Federal government in last year’s District of Columbia v. Heller decision. The amicus curiae brief was originally circulated in the Senate by Senators Kay Bailey Hutchinson and Jon Tester.
The letter is below:
November 10, 2009
Dear Colleague,
We invite you, as a member of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus, to join with us in signing onto an amicus curiae brief which Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison and Jon Tester and Congressmen Mike Ross and Mark Souder plan on filing in McDonald v. City of Chicago. The brief asks the U.S. Supreme Court to incorporate the Second Amendment as applying to state governments through the Fourteenth Amendment.
This brief will be filed with the Court in support of upholding the Second Amendment as a fundamental individual right applicable to our states as it was applied to the federal government and in federal enclaves, such as the District of Columbia in the 2008 case District of Columbia v. Heller. If the Court were to rule that the Second Amendment does not apply to our states and their localities, the individual right of all sportsmen to keep and bear arms for lawful purposes – such as hunting and a variety of shooting sports – could be jeopardized.
We hope you will join us and your fellow Sportsmen in filing this brief to ensure that the individual right of the Second Amendment extends to all sportsmen across our nation.
Sincerely,
Senator E. Benjamin Nelson
Co-Chairman
Senator Mike Crapo
Co-Chairman
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