What is Going On Here? 
By Karen Kerin

As a condition of the states ratifying the U. S. Constitution, a Bill of Rights was demanded to protect citizens from a central government that went to excess.  Most of us learned that fact in the school and indeed, the Bill of Rights is incorporated from the work of the first congress under the constitution.  Much of the detail of how that occurred is laid out by article in The Complete Bill of Rights: The Drafts, Debates, Sources & Origins, Neil H. Cogan (at the time Dean of Quinnipiac College School of Law) Oxford University Press, New York (1997).  Via the 14th Amendment’s Due process clause, the entire Bill of Rights applies to the states as well as the federal government.  We know that to be true operatively because freedom of religion, speech, and assembly are protected in all states under the 1st Amendment.  Similarly, the 3rd through the 9th Amendments are protected from the states running amuck.  Obviously then, the 2nd Amendment is also protected from state action as well and the 10th Amendment merely gives precedence to the states for any other rights not set forth in the Bill of Rights. 

Judge Sonia Sotomayor ruled in U.S. v. Sanchez-Villar (2004), "the right to possess a gun is clearly not a fundamental right". Subsequently, in DC v. Heller  (2008) ruled that the right to bear arms is a fundamental right under the Bill of Rights.  The Ninth Circuit, the most overturned circuit got it right in  (2009) following Heller.  Now, in 2009, a three judge panel of the Second Circuit with Judge Sotomayor voting on the panel in Maloney v. Cuomo (2009) ruled that Heller applied only to the DC area 

It seems pretty clear that Sotomayor is not a supporter of the Bill of Rights and therefore does not support the Constitution.   While her opinion might not affect us in Vermont, it will be a terrible blow for the individual and fundamental rights of people if she were to be confirmed to the U. S. Supreme Court.  Since our senior U. S. Senator is chair of the judiciary committee, we should expect him to urge rejecting her as a justice on the court because he has taken an oath to protect our Vermont constitution and laws and the federal constitution and laws.  If he does support Sotomayor, he would be guilty of perjury with all the penalties that apply and potentially to disbarment in Vermont and any other state where he might be licensed. 

Karen Kerin is a former Candidate for Vermont Attorney General