A rumor so good I almost don’t even want to post on it lest I jinx it.

There is very little information that can be gleaned with confidence about the authorship of the remaining opinions from the Term.

It does look exceptionally likely that Justice Scalia is writing the principal opinion for the Court in Heller – the D.C. guns case. That is the only opinion remaining from the sitting and he is the only member of the Court not to have written a majority opinion from the sitting. There is no indication that he lost a majority from March. His only dissent from the sitting is for two Justices in Indiana v. Edwards. So, that’s a good sign for advocates of a strong individual rights conception of the Second Amendment and a bad sign for D.C.

For those who haven’t been following along, what’s at risk here in this case (Washington DC vs. Heller) is whether or not the Constitution allows for an individual right to keep and bear arms.  Liberals, particularly those liberals in charge of gun policy in Washington DC, are arguing that the 2nd amendment is a collective right.  Meaning that, as a nation, we have the right to have government-coordinated militias of the sort predominant in the Revolutionary War era.  People who actually grasp the meaning of the Constitution, and who are familiar with the feelings of the framers on this matter, know that the 2nd amendment was intended to enshrine the right of citizens to go about armed.  Thomas Jefferson himself once said that liberty only exists when the government is afraid of the people.  He also said that from time to time the “tree of liberty” must be fortified with the “blood of patriots and tyrants.”

Clearly, this was a man who believed in an armed citizenry.

That Scalia is possibly writing the majority opinion on this case indicates that the majority is ruling in favor of individual rights.  Scalia is also an interesting pick because, even among a presumed majority of Scalia, Kenned, Roberts, Thomas and Alito there is bound to be divergences on the subsidiary issues presented by DC vs. Heller which are secondary to the primary question of individual vs. collective right.  Given that Scalia is a staunch originalist he is unlikely to be crafting a consensus that might contain the divergent views of the more moderate Kennedy.

Which probably means that the SCOTUS is going to rule only on the question of individual rights and leave the rest be.