Patrick
MSI Executive Member
Patrick,
You keep saying there was no second amendment in Maryland before June but is that really the case?
The state of Maryland has always been bound to the U.S. Constitution.
I know that the second is now incorporated against the states but the supremacy clause says that the Constitution is the supreme law of the land.
"This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding."
It gets better. MD actually has a pointer to the US Constitution in its Constitution that says, "Yeah, what they said."
But MD Courts long ago ruled that to be a literary flourish, not binding in any way (citation welcome from someone who knows it off hand).
The US Constitution was ruled in 1833 to apply only to Federal matters and enclaves by a unanimous Supreme Court in Barron v. Baltimore. Basically, only the Congress had to follow it. They ruled that the Constitution did not encumber the states; this means the Bill of Rights did not protect the citizens of the many states. Seriously...read that again - that "WTF?" feeling you just got is real.
The 14th Amendment tried to fix this by applying all rights to the states, but five years later that was gutted by the Supreme Court in a series of cases know as "the Slaughterhouse Cases".
Selective Incorporation of rights started in the early 20th Century using a theory of law that conveniently by-passed previous the previous Supreme Court rulings against the 14th. That theory ("Substantive Due Process") survived and flourished. It is the basis of most every incorporated enumerated (written, like freedom of speech) and unenumerated (not written, like abortion) right we have. It makes the states heed our rights outlined in the US Constitution (plus a few not listed), bit by bit.
So yeah, they lied to you in High School civics class. The Bill of Rights did not apply to you until someone in the 20th Century made pieces stick, one by one. The Second Amendment is just the most recent one to be "stuck". But in defense of your teachers, they didn't know what they hell they were talking about. They deserve forgiveness. And education.