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On Monday, the Supreme Court could potentially announce their decision on two pretty critical cases today (Monday, June 15th, 2008). The Supreme Court sessions ends next Monday (June 23rd) so in all likelihood even if they aren\’t announced today, they\’ll be announced very soon.

Here are two big cases to watch out for:

DC vs HELLER – The infamous second amendment case. As this will arguably be SCOTUS\’s biggest decision this session, I\’m rather expecting it to wait until the end of the session but the Gitmo case was already announced, for which I had assumed the same, so it shows what I know.

Here is a pretty good roundup of what to expect from this decision, especially since it makes the distinction between upholding the Second Amendment for a number of purposes, most notably civic and personal. The author (Mike O\’Shea) is right that there is a general consensus amongst airchair justices that the Second Amendment will in all liklihood be upheld….so the debate comes down to finer distinctions.

I fully expect this decision to essentially tapdance around the Miller 1939 decision, and come down in favor of private rights, leaving the argument for/against civic uses essentially twisting in the wind. Is I wrote previously, SCOTUS made it clear from the start that their decision would be limited to the case at hand, which is an issue of private usage.

Civic usage is likely to remain undecided, allowing states pretty wide latitude to ban \”scary guns\”. While SCOTUS, due to it\’s non-elected state, is theoretically free from having to respond to public whims that may change from day to day, I don\’t think most of the Justices want to come forward with a decision of essentially granting everyone the right to a howitzer.

Day vs Bond – According to US law, states can give in-state tuition to illegal aliens, but ONLY if they also provide that same tuition rate to US citizens. At least ten states have basically just ignored that last part and provide in-state tuition to illegals but charged US citizens from other states higher rates.

Those states include : California, New York, Utah, Washington, Oklahoma, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, and New Mexico. Many more states, including Minnesota, have debated similar bills.

Lower courts have ignored the issue, so this is an effort to get the federal government to force states to follow federal law.

[Crossposted at True North]