The Court's Job Is To Uphold The

[t]he Enshrinement Of Constitutional Rights Necessarily Takes Certain Policy Choices Off The Table.... Undoubtedly Some Think That The Second Amendment Is Outmoded In A Society Where Our Standing Army Is The Pride Of Our Nation, Where Well-trained Police Forces Provide Personal Security, And Where Gun Violence Is A Serious Problem. That Is Perhaps Debatable, But What Is Not Debatable Is That It Is Not The Role Of This Court To Pronounce The Second Amendment Extinct.

Many Americans Do Not Want Persons Who Openly Engage In Homosexual Conduct As Partners In Their Business, As Scoutmasters For Their Children, As Teachers In Their Children's Schools, Or As Boarders In Their Home. They View This As Protecting Themselves And Their Families From A Lifestyle That They Believe To Be Immoral And Destructive.

For In Order For Capitalism To Work -- In Order For It To Produce A Good And A Stable Society -- The Traditional Christian Virtues Are Essential.

Justice White's Conclusion Is Perhaps Correct, If One Assumes That The Task Of A Court Of Law Is To Plumb The Intent Of The Particular Congress That Enacted A Particular Provision. That Methodology Is Not Mine Nor, I Think, The One That Courts Have Traditionally Followed. It Is Our Task, As I See It, Not To Enter The Minds Of The Members Of Congress - Who Need Have Nothing In Mind In Order For Their Votes To Be Both Lawful And Effective - But Rather To Give Fair And Reasonable Meaning To The Text Of The United States Code, Adopted By Various Congresses At Various Times.

On This Day, When We're Celebrating Our Constitutional Heritage, I Urge You To Be Faithful To That Heritage - To Impose On Our Fellow Citizens Only The Restrictions That Are There In The Constitution, Not Invent New Ones, Not To Invent The Right Because It's A Good Idea.