It's Unconstitutional

Harmeet K. Dhillon,* Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, has joined the Solicitor of the United States in asking the Supreme Court to hear an FPC case against Hawaii's firearms ban. It is, after all, a direct violation of the Second Amendment. Why shouldn't the US government urge the Supreme Court to engage that issue in favor of the restoration of a natural and Constitutional right? That is the exact (and arguably sole) legitimate function of a government, to defend the natural rights of its citizens.

This at least is a very welcome move.

* I was introduced to Harmeet once via email, and was very surprised to learn -- as it was not suggested in the email and I didn't yet know her -- that 'Harmeet' is a feminine name in the Punjab. It is not in most of India, but I won't claim to know much about India. The reason it surprised me is that Hindi is an Indo-European language, and in all the Indo-European languages I know well enough to work in "Har-*" is a masculine formulation in names. In Semitic languages our expectations don't hold, but within our broad language family they usually do. 

At the time I was so surprised that I looked it up. In English the only two female names that start with "Har-" are "Harmony," which is of recent vintage, and "Harriet." Now Harriet is an interesting one; it is the feminine version of "Harry." But "Harry" is an Anglicized version of "Henri," which is more obviously Anglicized as "Henry." The reason that "Harry" is popular in the English-speaking world is the reason we find it in Shakespeare: the Hundred Years War produced several kings named Henry, whom due to the long animosity with France the English wished to distance from their French roots. Thus, it became popular to use a name that started with "Har-" rather than "Hen-," and that spread to English women as well. 

"Har-" in Hindi and Punjabi is a reference to a male god, Shiva, and having friendship with him. So, you see, I learned something just as a consequence of meeting our now-Assistant Attorney General. She's a smart lady, too.