Cheney Bucks Bush, Wants DC Gun Ban Overturned

Dick Cheney yesterday went against his own administration, signing a Congressional brief which urges the Supreme Court to uphold a ruling that found Washington DC's handgun ban to be unconstitutional. In so doing Cheney took a stronger Second Amendment stance than his boss, the Washington Post reports, adding that it's probably unprecedented for a Veep to go this far off the reservation.

"I don't recollect it ever happening before," said Richard Lazarus, of the Georgetown Law Center. The Bush administration wants the case returned to the lower court for review, concerned that overturning it in the Supreme Court could threaten other gun-control laws banning possession of automatic weapons. Some 305 lawmakers signed the brief, led by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.).