SUPREME© court

District of Columbia vs Heller 2008


For my class Policy we learned about the Supreme Court and the many cases they handle a year. The one I choose to focus on was Heller v District of Columbia. The main issue with this was that the Second Amendment relates heavily to the right of self defense. With that finding as anchor, the Court ruled that a total ban on handguns in the home is unconstitutional because the reference to arms in the amendment had to include a category so common as handguns. It also said that trigger locks on guns and having guns assembled prevented them from being used in self defense. This also affects the self defense purpose of the Second Amendment. Since handguns are in common use, their ownership is protected as well.

The District of Columbia Code made it illegal to carry an unregistered firearm. This also banned the registration of handguns totally.There was a way around it though, the police chief could give him a one year licence for a firearm. This case is about how the correct license to carry a firearm. This case was historic because the DC law challenged the second amendment and the legality of defending your home. He wasn't bringing the gun out, it was only at his house. The main question of the case was. “Do the provisions of the District of Columbia Code that restrict the licensing of handguns and require licensed firearms kept in the home to be kept nonfunctional violate the Second Amendment?” This was a quote from Affords law Center which really thought related to the text.

The defendant, the District of Columbia, passed the law to try to stop a big increase in gun violence in the city. The lawyers for the plaintiff Heller at all were financed by Robert Levy of the Cato institute. They thought it was good case to make it to the Supreme Court because it was so outrageous. An interesting fact is that Levy never owned a gun.

DC v. Heller was aimed for a group that would be diverse in all ways such as backgrounds such as gender, race, economic background, and age, so they selected six plaintiffs from their mid 20s to early 60s, 6 men and women, four of the where white and two of them were black so basically a spectrum of different people.. This was a very smart thing to do because they are choosing people from so many different lives and not all a liberal or conservative crowd. The main plaintiff was Dick Anthony Heller. Heller felt as if his constitutional rights were violated. He felt that the second amendment was totally disregarded.

According to Justice Scalia he wrote for majority opinion about guns and that there should be a full ban on all hand guns would violate the second amendment. Also he wrote how having to keep your gun with locks on it or disassembled is as well unconstitutional. “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” This is quote from the second amendment of the US Constitution.

The first item in the ruling was about, “ 1. The Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home. Pp. 2–53.” (DC v. Heller, 2008)

This ruling has affected society today because handguns are often used to protect people in their homes. Here are three examples from recent news stories.Charges filed after victim shot at armed robbers, killing 1, in self-defense near Truman and Oakley."I was scared": Concealed carry permit owner shot man in self defense.Las Vegas police say early information indicates a homeowner was acting in self defense when he fatally shot an intruder.

In my opinion, nowhere does it say you need proper license to have a firearm, but previous rulings said that some regulation is necessary and acceptable. The question was whether the regulation is so strict as to prevent the basic right from being exercised.

I think you should have a license if you are out with your weapon but if it is at your house locked up it is not necessary. Heller was in the right here and whole case against him is unconstitutional.

This case was pretty recent in 2008. Some things this court case really made clear was to prohibit firearms from the felons and the mentally ill. Forbid firearms in sensitive buildings such as schools and government buildings. Impose conditions on the commercial sale of firearms. These are all current issues of concern for everyone whether they support guns or not.

Overall I think that this case was a great example of a confusing issue of having the correct licence with the firearm. It shows how even if you are protecting your house, beliefs, or land, you have to have to correct certification for that firearm.

Trigger lock

Former Justice Antonin Scalia

Supreme court

Christensen, Anna. “District of Columbia v. Heller.” SCOTUSblog, www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/dc-v-heller/.

“DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA v. HELLER.” Legal Information Institute, Legal Information Institute, 26 June 2008, www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/07-290.ZS.html.


“FindLaw's United States DC Circuit Case and Opinions.” Findlaw, caselaw.findlaw.com/us-dc-circuit/1581885.html.



Rose, Veronica. SUMMARY OF D.C. V. HELLER, 7 Dec. 2008, www.cga.ct.gov/2008/rpt/2008-R-0578.htm.

Total Redesign

For our last unit we learned about urban planning and how people can choose specific designs for center areas whether good or bad. We learned about redlining and more of the political view of urban planning. For this Action Project we had to make a resign of a building or area that needs some fixing up. I choose an area less then 10 min from my house. I pass by it ever day and never really think about it. It turns out it use to be a school and now its a training area for the CPD. I feel like my new idea would make more sense for a developing area such as this.

 This is my model of an old area in my neighborhood. Right now it is used for a CPD training ground and used to be a school. I feel as though this has a lot of potential for retail and food places. I designed specific areas for specific purposes here. For example I have two bus stops going east and west. There is a train station under it for easy access. There are huge glass panels providing a lot of the interior light. There is also green roof, which can absorb carbon dioxide, and you can potentially grow some fruits and vegetables there. There is also a parking that costs more than other places so people think about walking or taking the bus or train there more. The reasons I want to change things is because I walk by this place when I walk home from school and I see is falling apart and everything slowly breaking. It's a shame that it just sits there and people want to develop massive projects like Lincoln Yards and not and not places like this. Some places that inspired me is the Irvine spectrum center in Irvine CA. This is because they made everything lit up by the sunlight there was no ceilings in the mall. Another thing that inspired me was New City I wanted to make a more green open with more shops version of that. For the SDG 11.2 is about safe transportation so I have a train system under that mall and and 2 bus stops. 11.6 is about reducing carbon footprint so i have 2 giant roof gardens. 11.7 is about safe green places there is the roof tours and also around the mall there will be benches and tables. A quote from Mr. Breen who lives less than block away form this and has seen this building all his life; "That has been there all my life, I would like something new there that can devolve the neighborhood more". A few of principals for future cities relates is to is walking. This is a great spot to walk to because it is located within a 5 min walk from North Ave.  This area is very "bikable" as well with the bike lanes implemented on the streets and the many bike racks available for anyone to lock there bike.  This is also going be very connected to the road. We are going to open that side road because there is already a light there so it is convenient. This will decrees the traffic on larbee and change it to Larabee .


Area
 450 x 980 = 441,000 ft2

volume of parking lot
100 x 150 x 70 =1,050,000 ft2

volume of mall
417 x 375 x 50= 7,820,000 ft2

volume of glass pane
 3.14 x 37.5 ^2 x 200 =884000/2= 442,000 ft2


Original

The Resign

Google Maps, Google, www.google.com/maps.



UN. “Goal 11 .:. Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform.” United Nations, United Nations, sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg11.

All images created by OL, 2019 

AA

The Injustice of 'nam

Policy is a class where we have been learning about the different roles of government. Whether that be executive, judicial, or legislative. Most recently we have been learning about the different wars and how policy greatly affected them. Our assignment was to choose a war America was in and decide if you thought it was a just war or not. I choose the war in Vietnam which was a very controversial one. Here is why.

The Vietnam ”war” took place in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. This took place in the years of 1955-1975. The US entered in 1964 by sending what was called advisors but were, in fact, military personnel. Military forces who fought in it were South Vietnam, US, Viet Cong, North Vietnam, South Korea. Cambodia and China. A unique thing about the war was that nearly two-thirds of the American men serving the war were volunteers. The war which lasted for approximately 20 years, is the longest war in the entire U.S history. During World War II, there were reportedly 40 days of combat per year for 4 years, while during the Vietnam war, there were 240 days of combat in 1 year on average.

One of the main causes was that North Vietnam was trying to invade South Vietnam. A major underlying cause was the spread of communism. President John F Kennedy called it a “domino effect”. If one country falls, all the countries after it will fall with communism. I think this war is unjust because there were no threats to the United States. I feel if there was no backing by the communists and it was just a civil war, it would have been a better idea but with all that support from the Chinese communists, it was a mistake for the US to get involved.

The US Congress was never involved in this and it turns out that Lyndon B Johnson did it on his own by executive order. This was justified because of the War Powers Act. The War Powers Act is a congressional resolution designed to limit the U.S. president’s ability to initiate or escalate military actions abroad. This act requires the President to notify Congress in 48 hours of sending armed forces to military action and forbids armed forces from remaining for more than 60 days, with a further 30-day withdrawal period. LBJ used it to enter the war.

There is a major flaw with this though. If something were to happen where the US might need to get involved this act might cause a roadblock for US troops. This could potentially make things worse without the US knowing what is going on. Also, this can potentially cause many civilian and innocent people to die.

Something I found which was also really interesting was apparently there was a letter from Ho Chi Minh. This was a telegram from him to Harry S. Truman about how he didn't want a conflict with the US. The US didn’t want to lose their ally, France, so they ignored the letters. A quote from Howard Zinn about Vietnam is “In 1953, a congressional study mission reported: "The area of Indochina is immensely wealthy in rice, rubber, coal and iron ore. Its position makes it a strategic key to the rest of Southeast Asia”. This shows how they were also thinking about what they would gain if they invaded. I feel like this relates to the whole Iraq oil wars which I won't go into now.

So overall I think this war was unjust. There was a big communist threat so they wanted to get rid of that and kind of show everyone that this is what happens to communist. Also, I think they were thinking about how much they could profit off this land with all its resources. Finally, if the war powers act didn't exist then the president could send troops anywhere without having the Congress discuss it.




We see how the various policies of the Congress and the desire to take the resources of Viet Nam got us into this conflict and the result was negative for the US.




Zinn, Howard. A People's History of the United States. New York. , 2017.





Editors, History.com. “Vietnam War.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 29 Oct. 2009, www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/vietnam-war-history.






Gates , John. “John M. Gates.” John M Gates, discover.wooster.edu/jgates/vietnam-the-debate-goes-on/.

Circuit Bored

I am "currently" in a class called Urban Planning. We are learning about things such as how electric currents work. We had a field experience to the Museum of Science and Industry and learned about the Tesla coil. This also related to the book we are reading "The Devil in the White City" which the building is from that time p  For this Action project we had to build a circuit board and relate it to the internals of a smart house.
  

overall I think this unit was very cool. The math wasn't too difficult and I saw how The Devil in White City and the information about electricity actually worked well together. Some times it feels like more of a stretch but with this unit, I feel like it worked.

A letter to Mr. Hopkins

For about our class policy we are learning about who represents us. We learned about the Aldermen, Congressmen, state senators and so on. This action project is about writing a letter to someone who represents you I choose 2nd ward alderman Brian Hopkins. He is signing a proposal for a new TIF district and major development called Lincoln yards.

Dear Aderman Hopkins,

I want to say I fully agree with your support on the Lincoln Yards Project. I feel that it would make the vacant space actually profitable. Three things that this can do for you bring in tax dollars which you can use to fix other important issues. Also, you will clean up an area that is empty and makes is populated and clean. Also, it can bring in new business which affects the income of the area.

I agree with you that this can bring jobs to their area. The agenda given to supporters noted Sterling Bay’s intention to create more than 10,000 construction jobs in addition to 24,000 permanent jobs, according to the company. Another thing to remember is at the moment the land is mostly industrial or vacant. If Sterling Bay builds Lincoln Yards it will become some of the most valuable residential and commercial property in the city. Property owners there would be paying tens of millions of dollars in property taxes. But the vast majority of this money would—as I said—be diverted from the schools to the TIF. This was by former mayor Rahm Emanuel


Unfortunately, there is opposition to this. Some people think that the money given to the company from the government is uneasy and should be spent in other places. What I think about this is that the government will make so much money from the taxes of the places that it has a change of making it back. To be honest, though I think you gave them a perfect amount because this I a huge project and there are many hidden expenses when building things. My father worked in construction for a few decades and he knows some small issue has the possibility of taking on hundreds of thousands of dollars.

This project is an amazing idea and I think will change Chicago forever. I think this because other big companies like sterling bay will see this massive project and then think maybe they can do the same in another vacant area. Like everything there clearly is some opposition from racially related issues to just not wanting change this can be overcome though. I am fully in support of you during this build.


Thanks,

AP1 Urban planning

For our class urban planning we have been learning about how cities plan out buildings. We also learned about bridges. For the action projects we had to build a truss bridge. It has to hold 10 pounds and not break.





For this project I based this off the truss bridge. We focus specifically on the Pratt truss bridge though it isn't exactly like it but it was based of it. Some issues we had with this was making the sides the same length and height. We didn't think about it before so it is a little bit uneven but we sanded it down so its alight now. This relates to SDG 11. It is about new and more successful infrastructures and with better bridges we can take this into consideration while building new buildings. 


    

Time Flys

At my school GCE lab, we are learning about light, sound, and time. We went on field experience to the planetarium and we learned about relativity and the universe. Recently we learned about clocks and other time-telling devices. We had to create clocks. I made a flying clock. The types of people who would use this are hobbyists who like building things and people who like cool gadgets and novelty items. This is an original idea and I based it off a drone and an alarm clock. The flying part came from a helicopter and that goes back to Leonardo da Vinci Aerial screw design.

Just to restate some of the math

Circumference is 2x Pi x 3= 18.84 degrees for the small blade. The larger blade is 2 x Pi x 6= 37.6 degrees. 

Dimensions of the clock are 5.1x2.7x1.6 inches. the volume is 22.03 inches.

  In conclusion, I made a clock that can fly. I quite enjoyed this type of project where I got to share the info through a video that I made. I had some trouble keeping this video under 5 minutes and I needed to edit it down about a minute or two.


“The Helicopter.” Go Back to the Front Page, www.leonardodavincisinventions.com/inventions-for-flight/leonardo-da-vinci-helicopter/.