Pop Quiz - identify the respective authors of the following quotes regarding intent of the founders in establishing the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution:
1) The Second Amendment exists "to guarantee the rights of states to form militias, not for individuals to bear arms."
A. President Barack Obama
B. Barbara Streisand
C. Huey Newton
D. Robert Bork
E. Arizona Congresswoman Gifford
2) The NRA's interpretation of the 2nd Amendment "is one of the greatest pieces of fraud, I repeat the word 'fraud', on the American public by special interest groups that I have ever seen in my life."
A. Michael Moore
B. George Clooney
C. Chief Justice Warren Burger
D. Ralph Nader
E. Robert F. Kennedy
Answers below the fold:
Of course, the correct answers are (A) uber-conservative jurist and "constitutional originalist" Robert Bork and (B) former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Warren Burger, in 1989 and 1991 respectively.
Via: Jill Lepore's extraordinary essay on the Constitution in the January 17, '11 New Yorker. (Read the whole thing.)
Wouldn't that actually make the answers (D) Robert Bork and (C) Warren Burger?
Pedantically yours,
JB
Posted by: JB | January 24, 2011 at 12:12 PM
Pedantically speaking, I should have written (1) Robert Bork and (2) Warren Burger.
Posted by: reg | January 24, 2011 at 09:43 PM