Court guts incorporation doctrine

I cannot believe this ruling is not getting more attention. And when people do comment on it, it's usually not for the reasons that make this ruling such a grave threat.

Incorporation is a legal concept that says the Bill of Rights protects the public not only from federal government abuses but also abuses by the states (or cities, which are arms of the states). This was of course the original intent of the framers of the Bill of Rights. But incorporation wasn't properly implemented until after the Fourteenth Amendment, which safeguards due process.

Now - in what has to be one of the more bizarre major rulings in recent memory - the federal 7th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a Chicago firearms ordinance on the grounds that the Second Amendment doesn't cover what states and cities do. Thus, under this new ruling, part of the Bill of Rights no longer has incorporation.

This case should have been considered based on other factors - not this. There should have been no issue whatsoever whether incorporation applies to part of the Bill of Rights - especially considering that incorporation has been settled law since the 19th century.

If the court was going to uphold the Chicago ordinance at all, what possessed them to gut 150 years of law to accomplish this? I personally don't think the gun control ordinance is effective, but where do our courts suddenly get this cockamamie notion that incorporation no longer applies?

That, my friends, is downright wacky.

The 9th Circuit ruled in April that the Second Amendment is indeed incorporated. That court upheld a local gun control law, but only after acknowledging incorporation. The 7th Circuit, however, didn't even recognize incorporation.

This is a bad, bad, bad precedent. If the Second Amendment isn't incorporated, what stops courts from saying the other amendments are also not incorporated?

Do you really want the states to be able to ignore the First Amendment? The Fourth Amendment? The Fifth? The Eighth?

I should think not. But the 7th Circuit seems to think the states should be able to.

(Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aliLOJoTvu0Q&refer=us)