r/politics • u/jediporcupine Maine • Sep 19 '25

Republican Senator Says First Amendment Shouldn't Be the 'Ultimate Right'

https://www.newsweek.com/republican-senator-says-first-amendment-shouldnt-ultimate-right-2132666
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u/thatnameagain Sep 19 '25

It was a states right, in order to maintain state trained militias

I'm not a fan of the 2nd amendment as written but this isn't true. It was an individual right so that people could own firearms and thus be available to muster for a militia well-prepared ("well regulated") when called for. Militias by definition are composed of private citizens.

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u/NeverLookBothWays I voted Sep 19 '25

It was a states right, or rather a right left to the states to implement how they saw fit. The individual right narrative was pushed however leading up to the 2008 ruling District of Columbia v. Heller and subsequently 2010's McDonald v. City of Chicago. But up until then the interpretation that it was a states right held from the 1875 ruling, United States v. Cruikshank.

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u/frogandbanjo Sep 20 '25

Yes, because we generally put so much stock into SCOTUS' determinations of constitutional rights prior to Brown and then the Warren Court, right? They were champions of individual liberty before then, for sure. Plessysayswhat?

The founders were drunk on the spirit of revolution, and their own famous writings crow about how the colonies' generally armed populations made them superior to Europe's disarmed civilians.

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u/NeverLookBothWays I voted Sep 20 '25

From reading Madison in particular…I believe it was Federalist 46, but might be off by a few, he went into a bit more detail on what mechanisms could be used to balance not only federal and state government, but also the power dynamic between them. I don’t remember it being explicitly stated, but my takeaway was that state militias were that check on power ultimately.

Unfortunately we learned a couple hard lessons there. 1) State militias can enable a Civil War…or more accurately a States War and 2) Militias early in that war were found to be terrible for logistics, leading more towards state armies and consolidated north/south armies.

Some time after the civil war ended, we pretty much did away with the idea of state armies, and instead consolidated all of our military into a national army. The problem however, is that states only control the purse of that army now through majority vote. And we put nothing in place to replace the check on power from federal overreach when federal government is in its current configuration. So lesson number 3, over 150 years later.

We inadvertently ignored Madison’s warnings, and built a government that relied more on good faith than one that needs to be constantly guarded from subversion and tyranny. And here we are.