LIST: A few landmark U.S. Supreme Court cases that are relevant to current issues discussed

[pipoman]

1. Something which must always be remembered

about Miller is that by the time Miller made it to SCOTUS, he was dead. Nobody appeared for Miller. When this happens in the context of the courts, the courts hand down a decision based on the evidence presented..no evidence presented in rebuttal of the evidence presented by the US Government and the finding will be heavily weighted toward the government's position..

Another interesting piece which came from Miller is the standard for restricting ownership of certain firearms beyond the laws which regulate all firearms is, "in common use for lawful purposes". This standard was used in both Heller and McDonald. It may be a tough sell to make the case that AR15 rifles are not "in common use for lawful purposes". Further, had Miller been there to make his case, he possibly could have shown that sawn off shotguns were in fact in common use for lawful purposes at the time.

It is hard to bank too heavily on the Miller decision since it was uncontested...however precedence repeated in other cases becomes much more difficult to overturn.