Judge Roy Moore and Foundation for Moral Law File Brief in U.S. Supreme Court Defending Individual Right to Keep and Bear Arms

February 12, 2008

Former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore and attorneys with the Foundation for Moral Law filed an amicus curiae brief in the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday arguing that Washington, D.C.'s laws essentially banning all firearms violate the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution: “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” The Foundation's brief in District of Columbia v. Heller argues that, as understood by the Founders who ratified the Bill of Rights, the Second Amendment prohibits the government from disarming lawful citizens of their ability to defend themselves against criminals and government tyranny. (Click here to read the brief.)

About this case, Judge Roy Moore said:

"The right to 'keep and bear arms' secured in the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is a sacred right providing for self defense from the violence of our fellow man and freedom from the tyranny and oppression of civil government.

"After the city of Washington, D.C., began to unreasonably restrict the possession and ownership of handguns and other weapons in 1976, the murder rate actually increased until 2005 when Washington was ranked 13th in the National Murder Rate. This goes to prove one thing, restricting the right of good law-abiding people to own guns does nothing to curb the crime and violence committed by those who have no regard for the law in the first place.

"President George Washington, after whom Washington, D.C. is named, once told the United States Congress that, 'A free people ought . . . to be armed.' It not only helped us to become free but also that will help us remain free. In this case, the U.S. Supreme Court must recognize that the Second Amendment means what it says."

The Heller case is before the Supreme Court after the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit struck down D.C's anti-gun laws and upheld the individual right to keep and bear arms. Now on appeal to the High Court, Judge Moore and the Foundation urge the Justices to affirm the court of appeals and, thereby, the Second Amendment.

The right to keep and bear arms is the means by which our other rights are protected, including the freedom of religion. The history of the Second Amendment demonstrates that because Americans in the founding era had a healthy fear of government power and a respect for the right of self-defense, they protected the fundamental right of every individual—“the people ”—to keep and bear firearms.

The Foundation for Moral Law, a national non-profit legal organization, is located in Montgomery, Alabama, and is dedicated to restoring the knowledge of God in law and government through litigation and education relating to moral issues and religious liberty.