This week’s U.S. Supreme Court rocket docket hearing on Texas’s abortion ban demonstrated that the court might not be ready to turn citizens into vigilantes when it comes to enforcing their political wishes. That was an argument worthy of scaring Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who seemed to take to heart the amicus brief from the Firearms Policy Coalition, which argued that “it takes little in the way of creative copying for States hostile to the Second Amendment—New York, California, New Jersey, Hawaii, etc.—to declare that the ownership or sale of a handgun is illegal … and set up a bounty system with the same unbalanced procedures and penalties adopted by Texas in this case.” Speaking of guns, the court also heard a challenge to New York state’s 108-year-old concealed handgun permit law, which requires that applicants show “proper cause” before getting an unrestricted license to carry. It’s looking like that law will go down, or at least be narrowed. Chief Justice John Roberts seemed to sum up much of the conservative majority’s view when he asked during oral arguments: “You don’t have to say, when you’re looking for a permit to speak on a street corner or whatever, that your speech is particularly important. So why do you have to show in this case, convince somebody, that you’re entitled to exercise your Second Amendment right?” National polling continues to reflect support for sensible gun regulations, and abortion access and  - overwhelmingly rejects Texas-style bans. Large majorities, too. Yet we’ve got a Supreme Court majority on the far-right fringe of mainstream America. There’s increasing momentum to change that, though. Read more