States, Rights

Sonia Sotomayor and several conservative judges agree: The Heller decision recognizing an individual right to keep and bear arms does not apply to states and localities until the Supreme Court says it does. Conservatives traditionally have embraced such an approach.

Sotomayor has taken flak from gun-rights advocates who object to a ruling she joined regarding a case concerning nunchaku, or martial-arts flails. The other day 7th Circuit Judge Frank Easterbrook said much the same regarding Chicago's ban on pistols. He was joined by Richard Posner, a jurist often liked by conservatives despite his curious view that the Constitution's meaning depends on economic cost-benefit calculations.

The two rulings conflict with another, from the 9th Circuit, which holds that the Second Amendment should be incorporated -- that is, applied to lower government levels -- through the 14th Amendment, as were the rest of the amendments in the Bill of Rights long ago.

To our lay minds, the 9th Circuit makes the better case. Holding that the Constitution protects an individual right from federal infringement, but not from infringement by state or local governments, seems absurd. When the Supreme Court takes the matter up -- as it seems destined to -- we expect it will agree.