On the recordAugust 5, 2010
The phrase ``a right of the people'' is used two other times in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights--in the first amendment's assembly and petition clause, the fourth amendment's search and seizure clause, and a very similar phrase is used in the ninth amendment, where the Founders stated that ``the enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.'' In all three instances, the Framers were referring to individual rights and not to collective rights. Nowhere in the Constitution does a ``right'' attributed to ``the people'' refer to anything but an individual right. It is the same with the second amendment. This has been affirmed in the Heller case. Judge Sotomayor, when testifying before us, said she thought that was settled law. The decision this year, in which she dissented, makes me wonder about that, and it gives me grave concern, with a 5-to-4 Court, about what might happen to precedent and what I believe now is settled law.
