Conservative judges agree with Sotomayor on gun ruling, but Fox's Bream doesn't tell you that

Special Programs Guns & Public Safety

Written by Jocelyn Fong

Published

Shannon Bream reported that “gun rights advocates have major concerns” about a ruling in which Sonia Sotomayor held that “states can ban gun ownership.” But Bream did not note that conservative judges have also held that the Second Amendment did not apply to the states.

During the July 14 edition of Fox News' Special Report, Supreme Court correspondent Shannon Bream reported that “gun rights advocates have major concerns, given a ruling from [Judge Sonia] Sotomayor earlier this year in which she held that the Second Amendment doesn't apply to the states, meaning states can ban gun ownership.” But Bream did not note that the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals -- in a decision written by Chief Judge Frank Easterbrook and joined by Judge Richard Posner, both conservatives appointed by President Reagan -- also held that the Second Amendment did not apply to the states.

As a June 16 New York Times article reported:

On June 2, a three-judge panel of the court, led by Chief Judge Frank H. Easterbrook, a well-known conservative, ruled that there was no basis for the court to apply the Second Amendment to the states. Such a decision, Judge Easterbrook wrote, should be made only by the Supreme Court, not at the appellate level.

The right of states to make their own decisions on such matters, Judge Easterbrook wrote, “is an older and more deeply rooted tradition than is a right to carry any particular kind of weapon.”

Bream and Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace have previously distorted Sotomayor's record on the Second Amendment.

From the July 14 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Bret Baier:

BREAM: Senators on both sides of the aisle wanted to know just where Sotomayor stands on gun rights and the Second Amendment. Today she tried to reassure her critics.

SOTOMAYOR [video clip]: Like you, I understand that -- how important the right to bear arms is to many, many Americans. In fact, one of my godchildren is a member of the NRA, and I have friends who hunt.

BREAM: But gun rights advocates have major concerns, given a ruling from Sotomayor earlier this year in which she held that the Second Amendment doesn't apply to the states, meaning states can ban gun ownership. In that decision, Sotomayor says she relied on precedent -- the same principle that guided Sotomayor and her fellow judges on the circuit court when they decided against a group of white firefighters from Connecticut.