THE OTHER SHOE DROPS: Updates To Previous Posts
† The Right To Bear Arms Belongs To Us All: Part II: A year after the landmark Heller decision sanctioning an individual’s right to keep and bear arms under the Second Amendment, questions remain about whether this federal right can be restricted on the state and local level, reports The New York Times:
The question of the constitutionality of existing city and state gun laws was left unanswered.
That left a large vacuum for the lower courts to fill. Supporters of gun rights filed a flurry of lawsuits to strike down local gun restrictions, and now federal appeals courts have begun weighing in on this divisive issue, using very different reasoning.
One court this month upheld Chicago’s ban on automatic weapons and concealed handguns, while in April a California court disagreed on the constitutional issue.
The differing opinions mean that the whole issue of city and state gun laws will probably head back to the Supreme Court for clarification, leading many legal experts to predict a further expansion of gun rights. …
A split among the federal appeals circuits, especially on constitutional issues, invites Supreme Court action, said Adam Winkler, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.
“Californians, Hawaiians and Oregonians have a Second Amendment right to bear arms, but New Yorkers, Illinoisans, and Wisconsinites don’t,” Professor Winkler said. “The Supreme Court will want to correct this sooner rather than later.”
† Gifted Children Left Behind (second item): Cloonan Middle School in Stamford, CT, has abandoned tracking students by academic ability based on their previous year’s standardized test scores in favor of experimenting with mixed-ability science and social studies classes for sixth graders until the end of this school year, reports The New York Times:
These mixed-ability classes have reported fewer behavior problems and better grades for struggling students, but have also drawn complaints of boredom from some high-performing students who say they are not learning as much. …
More than 300 Stamford parents have signed a petition opposing the shift, and some say they are now considering moving or switching their children to private schools. “I think this is a terrible system for our community,” said Nicole Zussman, a mother of two.
Ms. Zussman and others contend that Stamford’s diversity, with poor urban neighborhoods and wealthy suburban enclaves, demands multiple academic tracks, and suggest that the district could make the system fairer and more flexible by testing students more frequently for movement among the levels. …
Educators have debated for decades how to best divide students into classes. Some school districts focus on providing extra instruction to low achievers or developing so-called gifted programs for the brightest students, but few maintain tracking like Stamford’s middle schools (tracking is less comprehensive and rigid at the town’s elementary and high schools).
The district plans to keep a top honors level, but put the majority of students in mixed-ability classes, expanding the new system from sixth grade to seventh and eighth over three years. While the old system tracked students for all subjects based on math and English scores, the new one will allow students to be designated for honors in one subject but not necessarily another, making more students overall eligible for the upper track.
One teacher praised the mixed-ability classes because “the less-motivated students had still learned from their classmates’ example.” The upshot is that the smarter students are not only bored, but they are being made to do the job of parents and teachers in motivating the laggards instead of spending their classroom time learning as much as they can.
† Updates To Previous Posts (Chicago On The Potomac): Sangamon County (IL) State's Attorney John Schmidt Illinois has determined there is not enough evidence to charge Sen. Roland Burris with perjury for statements he made before a state House impeachment committee, reports The Associated Press:
Burris, 71, was appointed to President Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat by former Gov. Rod Blagojevich after the FBI arrested Blagojevich on corruption charges. Those charges include allegations that Blagojevich tried to sell the seat for political donations.
The new senator has been under intense scrutiny because of the circumstances surrounding his appointment and for changing his story multiple times about whether he promised anything for Blagojevich in exchange for the seat. The ethics committee began a preliminary investigation into how Burris got his job, and the Sangamon County State's Attorney was asked to determine whether perjury charges were warranted.
In a taped conversation between Burris and Blago’s brother Robert, Burris promised to "personally do something" to help the ex-gov raise funds for his campaign while lobbying for his appointment to the Senate.
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