On March 18, 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in District of Columbia v. Heller. The Court announced its decision to take the case in which plaintiffs challenge the constitutionality of the District's gun ban last Fall. The District of Columbia appealed a lower court’s ruling last year affirming that the Second Amendment of the Constitution protects an individual right to keep and bear arms, and that the District’s bans on handguns, carrying firearms within the home, and possession of loaded or operable firearms for self-defense violate that right.

In March, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit held that “[T]he phrase ‘the right of the people,’ when read intratextually and in light of Supreme Court precedent, leads us to conclude that the right in question is individual.” The D.C. Circuit also rejected the claim that the Second Amendment does not apply to the District of Columbia because D.C. is not a state.

The case marks the first time a Second Amendment challenge to a firearm law has reached the Supreme Court since 1939.

CSPAN coverage is now underway.

The Supreme Court will release the audio recording of oral argument in the following case on an expedited basis: District of Columbia v. Heller, scheduled at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, March 18, 2008. The audio recording will be released shortly after the conclusion of the argument.

ETA: Car Bogus, professor at Roger Williams U. Law School is claiming that the NRA doesn't want this decided against DC because it takes away their ability to fund raise. He claims that "radical libertarians" are the ones that are ones who are claiming 2A is here to protect against tyrannical gov't.

Be aware, Carl Bogus is a board member of the Brady Bunch.