Thousands of Ohio homeowners foreclosed on improperly

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Newspaper (Cleveland Plain Dealer) coverage: on our previously reported story:

Thousands of Ohio homeowners were foreclosed on improperly, lawsuit claims

Ohio Bombshell: Former AG takes on LPS, Mills & Servicers

CLASS ACTION COMPLAINT filed in Cuyahoga County (Cleveland)
MARC DANN (Former OHIO AG) of  DANN, DOBERDRUK & WELLEN, LLC
             Explosive Legal News: 
Cuyahoga County:  Court of Common PleasLinda Clark, Doehner, Lowery, Whiteman, Laura YEAGER
Plaintiffs
Urgent Update: CALL to ACTION for plaintiff being evicted (HERE)VS.Lender Processing Services (LPS) 
LPS Default Solutions 
DOCX LLC  (DocX)
Fidelity National Information Services (FNIS)
American Home Mortgage Bank Servicing (AHMSI)
LERNER, SAMPSON & ROTHFUS (LSR)
MANLEY, DEAS KOCHALSKI LLC (MDK)
REIMER, ARNOVITZ, CHERNEK& JEFFREY CO LPA
Defendants 
The complaint clearly spells out the criminal behaviour of the co-conspiring entities which acted in concert while participating and perpetrating enormous FRAUD in OHIO's foreclosures.  Our former Attorney General along with some powerful legal allies have filed this action on behalf of a proposed class consisting of:
ALL OHIO CITIZENS who were (a) defendants in judicial foreclosure actions {with} first lien mortgages on their homes that were purportedly held by securitization trusts, and that were knowingly initiated and prosecuted by Defendants on behalf of parties that lacked legal standing to do so, and (b) who were damaged by Defendants’ abusive foreclosure practices, including: (i) preparing, executing, and notarizing fraudulent court documents and assignments of mortgages and other property records that were used to initiate and prosecute such foreclosures, and (ii) imposing inflated, unfair, unreasonable and/or fabricated fees for “default management services” (the “Class”)
Three (3) categories of defendants {Servicers, Foreclosure document venders, and Foreclosure Mills) acted in concert and conspired in furtherance of the fraudulent scheme to generate enormous profits from default servicing fees by knowingly initiating foreclosure actions on behalf of entities that lacked legal standing to bring such actions.

92 page Class Action Complaint: DOWNLOAD HERESadly, in what appeared to be an instant counter action and outrageous and unconscionable retaliatory attack - a 10-day eviction notice was posted on Plaintiff Michael and Laura YEAGER's home - the day after the complaint was filed! It has since been followed up with another! The PREDATOR DRONE foreclosure mill law firm (REIMER, ARNOVITZ, CHERNEK& JEFFREY CO LPA ) apparently tasked co-defendant paper filing drones' (Manley Deas Kocholski) to execute the writ-of-possession while the morally corrupt  bank sponsored attorney - Kristi Pallen* - (kpallen@reimerlaw.com) (330-405-1199) continues the fight to legally block the Yeager's request for a  Stay (of an eviction). Reimer (Pallen) has also refused a supersedeas property bond offer (collateral), or to accept a previously agreed upon short sale. *Kristi Pallen - Previous irresponsible, bank-sponsored, failed action ADMONISHED: READ HERE on admonished behaviour: U.S. Bank National Association v. Lenor*Plaintiff’s counsel, Attorney Kristi Brown, also identified as Attorney Kristi Pallen, filed this matter on behalf of bogus Plaintiff, U.S. Bank National Association. The Court finds Plaintiff’s counsel (Kristi Brown kna Kristi Pallen) did not follow Local Rule 4.2. filing procedures for service by Certified Mail....and... The Court strikes all entries pertaining to service and further, the Court finds Plaintiff’s counsel failed to prosecute this matter...and.. Therefore, it is ORDERED this case is dismissed, without prejudice, .....and for Want of Prosecution. It is further ORDERED this case is dismissed... for failure to perfect service within 120 days, according to Fed.R.Civ.P 4.Plaintiff’s counsel is admonished !!!!! as to Service by Certified Mail

Home is Where the Vote Is

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OHIO is being called the most important swing state for the 2012 election!



NEWSFLASH:
President Obama - you - and Governor Romney will be competing for votes of millions of homeowners. As presidential candidates, you need to address ALL the housing issues (Underwater Mortgages, Fraudclosure, Fannie & Freddie holdings) in big swing states such as Ohio, Colorado, Nevada and Florida. Current estimates show there are between 12 - 16 million underwater homeowners, in addition to millions of fraudulent foreclosures that are NOT being counted in these totals.

OHIO:
The housing crisis has hit OHIO harder....than but a handful of states. As a result, many OHIO VOTERS are underwater on their mortgages (mortgage debt is greater than value of home) Recent housing market data shows more than a half a million (529,834) OHIO mortgages are underwater. What does that mean?

1 Million (1,000,258) Ohio eligible voters are underwater
12% of the eligible voters - underwater
528,834 home mortgages - underwater

To put these numbers in perspective, the number of Underwater Voters in Ohio (1,000,258) is OVER one third of the total votes cast for the winning presidential candidate in 2008. **

MESSAGE: 

OHIO VOTERS: please join the New Bottom Line Campaign:

 HOME IS WHERE THE VOTE IS
It's not just Ohio's underwater homeowners - it's millions of homeowners being impacted

Washington, DC: - Today (August 22nd) - a national campaign will put the agenda of 16 million underwater homeowners squarely on the national political agenda. ‘Home is Where the Vote Is’ will engage in a 8 state campaign to influence the presidential election with on-the-ground actions led by underwater homeowners along the travel routes of both candidates. The campaign will give a voice to the underwater voter -- a key voting bloc - this election cycle. Swing states included in the campaign are some of the hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis, including OH, CO, NV, FL, IA, MI.

'Home is Where the Vote Is' is organized by The New Bottom Line, a growing movement of community organizations, congregations, and individuals working together to challenge big bank interests and fight for principal reduction for underwater homeowners. Allies in highlighting and mobilizing underwater voters this season include Rebuild the Dream, Right to the City, Home Defenders League, Ohio FRAUDclosure and the hundreds of thousands of underwater homeowner and voting families.

READ Huffingtonpost Business Blog:
Underwater Voters Take Aim at Obama and Romney over Housing

Neither President Obama nor Governor Romney has proposed the bold solutions needed to address the housing crisis at the root of the American economy’s troubles. Resetting mortgages to fair market value is essential to keeping families in their homes and the recovery of the US economy and job market. Economists from both sides of the political spectrum support it.

'Home is Where the Vote Is' will elevate the real stories and power of underwater voters to the level that the campaigns will be forced to respond. Nationally, there are 16 million underwater homes, worth $2.8 trillion, that are $1.2 trillion underwater.  Resetting those mortgages to fair market value would save the average underwater homeowner $543 per month, pumping $104 billion into the national economy every year. This would create 1.5 million jobs nationally

The candidate that fails to seriously address Wall Street , underwater homeowners, and the resulting housing crisis WILL BE the candidate that loses.



More Americans Speak Out About Underwater Housing - (OH, NV, CO) 

Our neighborhoods are being destroyed by foreclosed homes. It's our communities that are deprived of hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue because too many homeowners have to unfairly pay the big banks instead of investing in local businesses. Entire communities are being blighted across our state and nation because of the failed policies and the on-going fraudulent practices of the big banks.

MORE: ...Huffington Post Business Blog - by Tracy Van Slyke

The Big Lie - Foreclosure issues resolved

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The current administration is revisiting the so called "Foreclosure Settlement"
* First....consider the settlement that the Obama Administration is now beginning to trumpet as one of its greatest achievements. This is the joint forty-nine state & federal settlement wherein the banks claim to eventually settle...by paying a  paltry $25 billion. (the 'headline number' provided by the White House) Not only is this a completely "disingenuous" claim, but it was systematically and totally dismantled by Yves Smith of Naked Capitalism (Top ranked financial blog).

In reality, and with maybe... a mere $5 billion (moved around on their books), the five criminal banks were released from ALL STATE lawsuits stemming from the massive and systemic fraud that went into the origination and servicing of housing loans throughout the bubble and into the crash. For this paltry sum, the banks were released from all liability stemming from a decade-long-run of illicit activities that fleeced millions of customers and inflated a bubble that eventually destroyed the economy of the United States and much of the world. Now, you might ask, to what did the five large banks, party to the settlement (Bank of America, Wells-Fargo, Morgan Stanley, Citibank, and Ally Bank) agree to do in exchange for this wonderful bounty of sweeping immunity? They committed themselves, after much dodging and wrangling, to follow the law of the land! (Are you serious ! Really!) Specifically, they promised to stop engaging in fraudulent foreclosure practices. That is harsh! (sarcasm!)

Consider the massive evidence of FRAUD -- besides the reams of paper and court documents, this includes the many witnesses who have spoken to the media, written testimonials or books, already testified in court on related matters, etc. Then, consider even this partial list of crimes to be investigated. Accounting fraud screams out for action under Sarbanes-Oxley; loan origination fraud (including, by 2006, almost universal appraisal fraud); the robo-signing, forgeries, and post-dating of documents that for years were routinely submitted to courts during legal proceedings; the myriad of tax avoidance scams and lost paperwork that were a core feature of the mortgage electronic registration systems; the deliberate misrepresentation in the "Warrants and Reps" attached to the packaging and sale of mortgage-backed securities and derivatives thereof; and on and on it goes. (I should add that, coincidentally, soon after this settlement was signed, several states inexplicably dropped or settled what were very promising criminal investigations.)

But, let us be fair, the Administration got more than that (exaggeration !) Contingent on their meeting a number of criteria, families found to have lost their home through fraudulent actions taken by one of these five gigantic loan servicers were to be eligible to receive $1,500 to $2,000! Now, I cannot speak for you. But if, as a consequence of fraud or negligence on the part of a major bank, I lost my home and as a consequence also lost my credit rating, neighborhood, dignity, and the ability of any children I might have to remain in the schools and with the teachers with whom they were familiar, I would be very angry. If, years later, I got a check for $2,000, such a paltry payment for all that I had lost would strike me as only one more of a long line of humiliations. Some real personal homeowner humiliations are shared below



Apparently, Obama's campaign managers believe that reminding voters listeners of this most awful settlement, one that so clearly defines and encapsulates everything that is so wrong about the Administration's approach to disciplining fraudulent financial institutions, is their best strategy for convincing voters that things would be so much worse under a Romney Administration

 * Excerpts above ....come from a brilliant HuffingtonPost Blog by Robert Prasch titled:

The Obama Administration, the 49 State Mortgage Settlement, and the Spin: A Study in Shamelessness (HERE)

Related post:  Home is Where the Vote Is  (HERE)

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Ohio Blogger to White House for Housing Summit

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At White House Meeting, Youngstown Ohio Housing Leader, Blogger, Homeowner  - Pushes Obama Administration for Solutions to Foreclosure and Housing Crisis

WASHINGTON, DC – On Thursday September 13th, Mark Roarty, an Ohio leader and nationally recognized blogger and housing advocate traveled to our nation’s capital to meet with top Obama Administration officials at the White House. Mr. Roarty discussed the immediacy and need for implementing bold new solutions to the housing and foreclosure crisis that has devastated our communities. cities & states.

Mark Roarty prior to White House housing summit
In break-out meetings with officials from HUD, DOJ, and the White House National Economic Council - Mark joined 150 other leaders, clergy, homeowners, and housing advocates (representing 26 states) and laid out recommendations to address the housing crisis and getting our economy back on solid ground. Roarty, along with other leaders, told the White House administration that it is far past time that they enact policy solutions such as:
- Principal reduction as a bold new plan needed to address foreclosures, fix the housing crisis, create jobs, and reset the economy. Specifically, the request included strong language to remove Ed DeMarco, interim director of FHFA, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Ed DeMarco obstinately and ideologically opposes principal reduction, despite its proven benefits for homeowners and taxpayers.
- Publicly support the RMBS Task Force investigating big bank fraud, which the president announced in his State of the Union address back in January. The task force needs additional financial resources and staff to conduct real and effective investigations. The task force work will result in accountability for Wall Street crimes that crashed our economy.
- A nationwide Homeowner Bill of Rights that enacts strong standards for how banks must work with borrowers in foreclosure, including mediation and mandatory principal reduction when it would help the homeowner and investor.

Later in the day, Roarty joined up with other Ohio housing support groups and organizational leaders to visit Ohio Senators Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman. In the Senators' Washington D.C. offices they met with key staff to share ideas and ask for support from the Ohio Senators on the recently introduced Menendez/Boxer Bill (S. 3522). The bill would allow homeowners trapped in high-interest loans, guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to refinance into lower interest loans and also eliminate up-front fees along with appraisal and loan closing costs.

Roarty, was invited to the meeting because of  his affiliation with NPA and The New Bottom Line along with his nationally recognized blog Ohio FRAUDclosure. In Ohio, he is a leader and homeowner advocate with the Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative (MVOC). 
Tracy Van-Slyke (Director of The New Bottom Line) & Mark Roarty on front steps of White House prior to meeting.

Mark Roarty is also one of three nationwide home-owner spokespersons for The New Bottom Line coalition's Home Is Where The Vote Is campaign. The campaign, with the goal of making President Obama and Governor Romney address the foreclosure and housing crisis, features Roarty in a two-minute video explaining the realities faced by thousands of Ohio homeowners. Some of the deeply felt pain, of being in foreclosure, is shared by Roarty in the video. Recently, after a 4 1/2 year legal battle, a decision was handed down by an Ohio Appellate Court reversing the illegal foreclosure on his home.



More than 400,000 OHIO homeowners have been foreclosed on since 2007, with the state’s eight urban cores being hit hardest. The spike in foreclosures has led to massive neighborhood blight, vacant properties and community disinvestment. Those maintaining their homes have seen a huge decline in value, leaving 529,834 Ohio homeowners underwater on their mortgages. That figure is roughly one quarter of all homeowners in the state. Nationally, there are almost 16 million underwater homes, totaling a loss of $1.2 trillion in home equity. Resetting those mortgages to fair market value would save the average underwater homeowner $543 per month, pumping $104 billion into the national economy every year. This would also allow financial capacity to create 1.5 million jobs nationally.

Related: New Jersey - Homeowners Underwater and abandoning ship.

The foreclosure crisis in Ohio is rooted in illegal activity by lenders and Wall Street and inadequate rules and enforcement. The misconduct included predatory sub-prime lending, targeting of senior citizens, veterans, and communities of color, and bundling and pawning off flawed mortgages, avoiding accountability. Those forces combined with record long-term unemployment to bring our economy to the brink of collapse, and continue to jeopardize our economic recovery.

"The Mahoning Valley (Youngstown), like many areas across the country, need help to stop the on-going and rampant bank and servicing fraud in foreclosure," Roarty said. "Local and state leaders and organizations have done everything possible to deal with the result of illegal and improper foreclosures (vacant homes & blighted neighborhoods) by helping secure funds for demolition. Now we need to address the cause. We need action, and we need it now. My home, our communities, and our economic future is depending on it."

Speaking directly to HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan at the end of the meeting, Roarty, in front of the entire forum, asked that the administration officials in attendance pass along the importance of these issues  - directly to the President.

Although he was impressed that the administration agreed to host the forum, he feels that more immediate action is needed. "The President needs to address this in his campaign," Roarty said after the meeting. "It’s great that administration officials heard our concerns and critique, but this requires more than lip service."
Information for Ohio Homeowners at Home is Where the Vote is (HERE)

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U.S. Court sides with City of Cleveland v Wall Street

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U.S. Federal Appeals court sides with City of Cleveland (Ohio)UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT ANNOUNCES For years the City of Cleveland (Ohio) has fought a herculean battle against Banks, Wall Street and the lenders which almost destroyed the entire housing stock of Cleveland. The city fought to Hold Banks accountable in local courts, State and Federal courts and even all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Unfortunately, the well funded banks have spent millions litigating these cases, going "all-in" with a transparent effort and goal to financially wipe out the city (with legal expenses). The banks hoped, litigating these cases, even to the point of absurdity, would teach Cleveland (and other cities) a lesson - Don't take on Wall Street! To date, that strategy has worked well by applying "legal paralysis" (on-going litigation) in an effort to prevent the already "asleep at the wheel" federal agencies and regulators from acting.

Fortunately, the U.S. Court of Appeals (for the Sixth Circuit) refuses to be "bought out" or "sell-out." The court continues to enforce the Rule of Law and even show the Supreme Court of Ohio they'll NOT allow the trashing of existing laws in favor of the Banks and Wall Street firms. Although this is not a win (on the merits of the suit), nonetheless, it holds co-conspirators Plaintiffs JP Morgan Chase (Chase Bank) responsible for procedurally abiding by the rules. The Sixth Circuit, took the time, as part of their published decision, to opine on the foreclosure crisis and added some colorful commentary (below) on the havoc that Wall Street brought on the city.

CHASE BANK USA, N.A., JPMORGAN CHASE BANK, N.A., JPMORGAN MORTGAGE
Acquisition Corp., and J.P. Morgan Securities, Inc.
Plaintiffs-Appellants/Cross-Appellees
V.
CITY OF CLEVELAND,
Defendant-Appellee/Cross-Appellant 

READ CASE DECISION: CASE Nos. 10-4115/4116

KAREN NELSON MOORE, Sixth Circuit Judge:
.....The foreclosure crisis that swept the nation in the latter half of the past decade hit Cleveland particularly hard. It also led to this litigation. Though this case has - as its background - such weighty factual topics as subprime-mortgage lending, foreclosures, and the precarious economic state of the post industrial Midwest, the issue at stake in this appeal is solely procedural. Because the district court (United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio at Cleveland. No. 08-00514) nonetheless dismissed the suit...without notice to the parties, we REVERSE the judgment of the district court and REMAND for further proceedings.

Cleveland’s decision to address the issue of subprime-mortgage securitization through litigation arguably reflects an otherwise frustrated regulatory intent, as the city likely could not regulate such activity directly. Ohio law appears to prevent Cleveland from regulating subprime mortgages in the traditional manner (i.e. by municipal ordinance), as it vests the state with sole authority to “regulate the business of originating, granting, servicing, and collecting loans and other forms of credit in the state and the manner in which any such  business is conducted.” Ohio Rev. Code § 1.63(A). In addition, Ohio law expressly preempts “[a]ny ordinance, resolution, regulation, or other action by a municipal corporation” to regulate such matters. Id.§ 1.63(B). Indeed, the OHIO SUPREME COURT struck down Cleveland's previous attempt to regulate predatory mortgage lending by ordinance as preempted by state law, including § 1.63. Am. Fin. Servs. Ass’n v. City of Cleveland, 858 N.E.2d 776, 785–86 (Ohio 2006).

I. BACKGROUNDThe City of Cleveland has seen a record number of home foreclosures in the past decade. Between 2000 and 2008, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, where Cleveland is located, recorded approximately 80,000 foreclosures. In Cleveland, Foreclosures Decimate Neighborhoods,NPR Radio, May 24th, 2008. In 2007, County Treasurer Jim Rokakis described the city as "the epicenter of the mortgage meltdown in America." (Thomas Ott & Susan Vinella, Home Loan Foreclosures on the Rise in Cuyahoga, The Plain Dealer, July 4, 2007).  Against this backdrop came three (3) lawsuits relevant to this case:

A. City of Cleveland v. Ameriquest Mortgage Securities, Inc. (City of Cleveland I) In January 2008, Cleveland brought suit against twenty-one (21) financial institutions in Ohio state court, alleging that the defendants’ actions in the subprime-mortgage industry constituted a public nuisance under Ohio common law. By securitizing subprime mortgages and later foreclosing on the houses purchased through such mortgages, the defendants allegedly contributed to a financial crisis in the city that included significant declines in property values, a shrinking tax base, and an increase in criminal activity. Cleveland sought to recover for the costs it incurred in monitoring, maintaining, or demolishing foreclosed properties and for decreased tax revenues. The defendants {Ameriquest} removed the case to federal court. {Then} after denying Cleveland’s motions to remand and to amend its complaint...the district court granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss on the grounds that the city’s suit was preempted by state law and was barred by the economic-loss doctrine.
B. City of Cleveland v. JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A. (City of Cleveland II) In August 2008, shortly after the district court denied Cleveland’s motion to remand in City of Cleveland I, Cleveland filed a second suit in Ohio state court against twenty-eight (28) financial institutions, including the non-diverse JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. In addition to pleading another public-nuisance claim, Cleveland alleged that the defendants had violated the Ohio Corrupt Activities Act (“OCAA”), the state RICO analogue, by inaccurately claiming title to mortgages and promissory notes in foreclosure proceedings in violation of Ohio Revised Code § 2921.12(A). See Ohio Rev. Code § 2923.32. Cleveland also sought to recover under Ohio Revised Code § 715.261 for costs incurred maintaining or demolishing foreclosed houses.
C. Chase Bank, USA, N.A. v. City of Cleveland (Chase Bank) In February 2008, while City of Cleveland I was pending, Plaintiffs-Appellants Chase Bank, USA, N.A., JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., JPMorgan Mortgage Acquisition Corp., and J.P. Morgan Securities, Inc. (collectively, “Chase Bank”) brought the suit that is currently before us. Chase Bank sued Cleveland in federal district court... requesting an injunction against that suit. After Cleveland filed City of Cleveland II, Chase Bank amended its complaint to request declaratory relief and an injunction against both of Cleveland’s lawsuits.
D. Recent Developments:
Since this case left the district court, several developments have occurred in both City of Cleveland I and City of Cleveland II. In City of Cleveland II, the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas dismissed Cleveland’s public-nuisance and OCAA claims, but denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss. {As}J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, N.A. and J.P. Morgan Securities, Inc. are defendants in City of Cleveland II. Cleveland voluntarily dismissed its §715.261 claim and appealed the trial court’s dismissal of the public nuisance and OCAA claims. That appeal is currently pending in the Court of Appeals of Ohio, Eighth Appellate District.

In addition, the United States Supreme Court denied Cleveland’s petition for a writ of certiorari in City of Cleveland I. City of Cleveland v. Ameriquest Mortgage Sec., Inc., 131 S. Ct. 1685 (2011). Accordingly, Chase Bank’s request for injunctive and declaratory relief regarding City of Cleveland I is now moot. All that remains of the suits in which Cleveland is the plaintiff is City of Cleveland II. Because Chase Bank, USA, N.A. and JPMorgan Mortgage Acquisition Corp. are not parties to City of Cleveland II, we dismiss their claims as moot.

Another Recent Case linked below from the same U.S. Federal Court (Sixth Circuit):US Court of Appeals smackdown of Ohio Mill Firm - LSR
CLEVELAND WARNED the Regulators !! Yet...No one did a thing!!!
SHOCKING, STUNNING, and ACCURATE predictions are quotes from this now 4 year old (2008) article : As Decade Dawned signs of Crisis:   9-28-2008 - Roger Mezger

"We called it early... Nobody listened,"There was blood on the streets of Cuyahoga County. But it wasn't until there was blood on the streets of Wall Street that anyone cared."
(Jim Rokakis - Cuyahogo County Treasure)

'This is going to become an epidemic,' and they sat on their hands. For whatever reason, they didn't act. But if you were looking, the handwriting was on the wall. If you were looking, it was obvious something was wrong."
(Tony Stevenson, a staff attorney with Housing Advocates Inc. in Cleveland)

"Regulators allowed loose lending to keep the economy going. All the regulators knew what was going on."
(Raj Aggarwal, dean of the College of Business Administration at the University of Akron)

For years Cleveland had been WARNING "asleep-at-the-wheel" State and Federal regulators of what was to come.  Home prices had become so outrageous in value, that during a 6 year period, median home prices (in Cleveland) rose 56%, according to county real estate records, while the city's population dropped 4% during the same period. It didn't make sense. YET - No one in OHIO or the Federal Government would listen or do anything to stop these lenders and banks from pillaging the city.

Two more perspectives on the Supreme Court and gun control

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● Jeffrey Toobin, in The New Yorker, on how members of the extremist majority on the Supreme Court, such as Justice Antonin Scalia, made a mockery of their own professed belief in "originalism" to radically revise the meaning of the Second Amendment:

Does the Second Amendment prevent Congress from passing gun-control laws? The question, which is suddenly pressing, in light of the reaction to the school massacre in Newtown, is rooted in politics as much as law.

Antonin Scalia

For more than a hundred years, the answer was clear, even if the words of the amendment itself were not. The text of the amendment is divided into two clauses and is, as a whole, ungrammatical: “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” The courts had found that the first part, the “militia clause,” trumped the second part, the “bear arms” clause. In other words, according to the Supreme Court, and the lower courts as well, the amendment conferred on state militias a right to bear arms—but did not give individuals a right to own or carry a weapon.

Enter the modern National Rifle Association ... [which] pushed for a novel interpretation of the Second Amendment, one that gave individuals, not just militias, the right to bear arms. It was an uphill struggle. At first, their views were widely scorned. Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, who was no liberal, mocked the individual-rights theory of the amendment as “a fraud.”

But the N.R.A. kept pushing—and there’s a lesson here. Conservatives often embrace “originalism,” the idea that the meaning of the Constitution was fixed when it was ratified, in 1787. They mock the so-called liberal idea of a “living” constitution, whose meaning changes with the values of the country at large. But there is no better example of the living Constitution than the conservative re-casting of the Second Amendment in the last few decades of the twentieth century. ... 

Read the full article here
And hear more from Jeffrey Toobin on a range of other issues in our recent conversation with him.

● The New York Times on how the Supreme Court ruling, written by Scalia, strking down the District of Columbia ban on handguns, while not preventing all gun regulation, further emboldened the National Rifle Association:

The N.R.A., emboldened by a Supreme Court rulingasserting an individual constitutional right to bear arms, has turned itsattention to further broadening the market, lobbying state legislatures toallow concealed weapons in churches, schools and other public places and torestrict the discretion of local police in granting gun permits.

Read the full editorial here 

Guest Blog: It was done on Tobacco. It can be done on guns.

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By Dennis Henigan

I spenttwenty-three proud years of my life as a lawyer and advocate for the guncontrol cause.  Countless times, afteregregious acts of mass violence with guns were followed by cowardly excuses forinaction by our political leaders, I would wonder:  What will it take?  What kind of horror must our nationexperience before the politicians finally defy the gun lobby and startprotecting the American people?

After SandyHook, I think we may know the answer.  Asour citizens confront the inconceivable reality of 20 first graders (and six caringadults) shot to death in their school, there is a palpable shared feeling thatwe can tolerate the slaughter no longer. Deep inside our collective consciousness, we know that, if our leadersdo nothing, we will suffer the horror again and again and again.  And we can’t stand the thought of it.    Yes, SandyHook is different.  The attack on anelementary school classroom taps into our most elemental instinct as adults andparents -- to protect the children before all else.  I now work in the tobacco control movementand one parallel to guns is striking.  Akey turning point on the tobacco issue was the revelation that the tobaccocompanies were deliberately acting to addict our children to a lethal product.   When the welfare of our kids is at risk, weinsist that something be done. 
Everything Iknow about the gun issue tells me we are entering a period of unprecedentednational self-examination about what gun violence is doing to our nation.  And we will not be satisfied with aconversation.  We must have action.
The Americanpeople can overcome the gun lobby, but only if we confront, and expose, threemyths that have long dominated the gun debate and given the politicians a readyexcuse for inaction. 

• First, wemust not let the opponents of reform get away with the empty bromide that “gunsdon’t kill people, people kill people.”  Doesany rational person really believe that the Sandy Hook killer could havemurdered 26 people in minutes with a knife or a baseball bat?   Guns enable people to kill, more effectivelyand efficiently than any other widely available weapon. 
• Second, wemust challenge the idea that no law can prevent violent people from gettingguns.   This canard is refuted by theexperience of every other western industrialized nation.  Their violent crime rates are comparable toours.  But their homicide rates areexponentially lower because their strong gun laws make it harder for violentindividuals to get guns. 
• Third, wemust not accept the notion that our Constitution condemns us to the continuedslaughter of our children.  It is truethat the Supreme Court has expanded gun rights in recent years; it is equally truethat the Court has insisted that the right allows for reasonablerestrictions.  In his opinion in the Heller gun rights case, Justice Scalialisted restrictions on “dangerous and unusual weapons” among the kinds of gunlaws that are still “presumptively lawful”. Assault weapons that fire scores of rounds without reloading surely are“dangerous and unusual”.

The tobaccocontrol movement overcame some equally powerful mythology to fundamentallyalter American attitudes toward tobacco products.   The tobacco industry’s effort to sowconfusion and uncertainty about the link between smoking and disease eventuallywas exposed as a fraud.  The entrenchedview that smoking was simply a bad habit that individuals can choose to breakwas destroyed by evidence that the tobacco companies knew that nicotine waspowerfully addictive and engineered their cigarettes to ensure that people gothooked and stayed hooked.   Theassumption that smoking harms only the smoker was contradicted by theoverwhelming evidence of the danger of second-hand smoke.  
Once thesemyths were exposed, attitudes changed, policies changed and we started savingcountless lives.  Since youth smokingpeaked in the mid-1990s, smoking rates have fallen by about three-fourths among 8^thgraders, two-thirds among 10^th graders and half among 12^thgraders.  A sea change has occurred onthe tobacco issue.
Similarlyfundamental change can come to the gun issue as well.  The myths about gun control, however, stillhave a hold on too many of our political leaders and their constituents.  We will hear them repeated again and again inthe coming weeks of intense debate. Every time we hear them, we must respond and we must persuade.
There is toomuch at stake to be silent.   
Dennis Henigan is Director of Policy Analysisand Research at the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and a former Vice Presidentof the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.  He is the author ofLethal Logic:  Exploding the Mythsthat Paralyze American Gun Policy (Potomac Books 2009)