The Supreme Court has never answered the Second Amendment question directly, and it has been nearly 70 years since the court even approached it obliquely. A decision in 1939, United States v. Miller, held that a sawed-off shotgun was not one of the "arms" to which the Second Amendment referred in its single, densely written, and oddly punctuated sentence: "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."

Asked during his confirmation hearing what he thought that sentence meant, Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. responded that the Miller decision had "side-stepped the issue" and had left "very open" the question of whether the Second Amendment protects an individual right as opposed to a collective right.

A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, on which the chief justice formerly sat, ruled in March by a vote of 2 to 1 that "the right in question is individual," not tied to membership in a state militia. On that basis, the court declared that the 31-year-old statute, one of the country's strictest, was unconstitutional.

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP is pleased to announce that the Firm has elected 14 new partners, effective January 1, 2008.  The new partners represent a wide range of practice areas and geographical regions.

"We are proud to recognize the accomplishments of this extraordinarily talented group of attorneys," said Ken Doran, Managing Partner of Gibson Dunn. "The new partners are exceptional lawyers, who reflect our firm's values of excellence, personal integrity, collegiality and dedication to providing the highest level of service to our clients.  Representing diverse practices across our offices, they bring a wealth of knowledge, experience and expertise that will be a tremendous resource for our clients and our firm."

  The new partners include:

  -- Dora R. Arash -- Arash's practice focuses on federal income tax
    planning for corporations and partnerships, as well as tax controversy
    matters.  Resident in the Los Angeles office, she graduated magna cum
    laude from the Pepperdine University School of Law in 1994.

  -- Ron C. Ben-Yehuda -- Ben-Yehuda practices in the areas of transactional
    intellectual property, media and technology, focusing extensively on
    agreements relating to technology development, marketing and licensing,
    as well as e-commerce and other online activities.  Prior to joining
    the Firm, he was general counsel of a public software company.
    Resident in the Los Angeles office, he graduated with distinction from
    Stanford Law School in 1987.

  -- Anne Lee Benedict -- Benedict's practice focuses on corporate finance,
    business combination, securities and general corporate matters.
    Resident in the Washington, D.C. office, she graduated from the
    University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1999.

  -- Frederick S. Chung -- Chung practices intellectual property litigation,
    focusing on patent litigation.  Resident in the Palo Alto office, he
    graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1995.  Following his
    graduation from law school, he served as a law clerk to the Honorable
    Karen Nelson Moore of the U.S. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit, in
    Cleveland, Ohio.

  -- Rachel Couter -- An English-qualified lawyer, Couter practices
    international litigation, arbitration and other dispute resolution,
    including contentious regulatory disputes.  She is a Solicitor of the
    Supreme Court of England and Wales.  Resident in the London office, she
    obtained a first class honors degree in law from the University of
    Cambridge in 1994.

  -- Michael M. Farhang -- Farhang practices white collar criminal,
    securities, and general business litigation.  Prior to joining the
    Firm, he served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Central
    District of California, where he specialized in white collar fraud
    prosecutions in the Major Fraud section.  Farhang also participated in
    legal assignments in Iraq for the Department of Justice in 2003.
    Resident in the Los Angeles office, he received his law degree cum
    laude from Harvard Law School in 1995.

  -- Drew C. Flowers -- Flowers focuses his practice on real estate
    transactions, with a particular emphasis on representing capital
    partners, developers and lenders in complex financing transactions.
    Resident in the Los Angeles office, he received his law degree from the
    University of Southern California in 1998.

  -- Eduardo Gallardo -- Gallardo concentrates his practice on mergers and
    acquisitions and general corporate transactions.  Resident in the New
    York office, he graduated from Columbia Law School in 1999, where he
    was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar.

  -- Joshua Lipton -- Lipton is a member of the Firm's Antitrust Practice
    Group.  His practice includes antitrust litigation, merger and
    acquisition investigations, antitrust counseling, and antitrust
    investigations by federal and state agencies and the European
    Commission.  Resident in the Washington, D.C. office, he received his
    law degree magna cum laude from the University of Michigan School of
    Law in 1998, where he graduated first in his class.

  -- Michael K. Murphy -- Murphy's practice focuses on environmental
    litigation and counseling.  He also has experience handling various
    government contract-related issues.  Resident in the Washington, D.C.
    office, he graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law in
    1999.

  -- Julian W. Poon -- Poon is an appellate and general commercial
    litigator, with a broad range of experience at both the appellate and
    trial court level across the country in antitrust, intellectual
    property, class action, labor, energy, media-access, and general
    commercial litigation.  Prior to joining the Firm, he served as a law
    clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court of the United
    States during the 2000-2001 Term, and to Judge J. Michael Luttig of the
    U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit from 1999-2000.  Resident
    in the Los Angeles office, he graduated summa cum laude from Harvard
    Law School in 1999, receiving the Fay Diploma for placing first in his
    class.

  -- C. William Thomas, Jr. -- Thomas's practice emphasizes the formation
    and operation of domestic and international private investment funds,
    including hedge funds, private equity funds, real estate funds and
    funds of funds.  Resident in the Washington, D.C. office, he received
    his law degree magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1998.

  -- Michael L. Reed -- Reed's practice involves corporate securities,
    merger and acquisition, corporate finance, and general business and
    contract matters.  Resident in the San Francisco office, he received
    his law degree from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1994.

  -- Aric H. Wu -- Wu practices complex commercial litigation with a
    significant concentration in the area of securities litigation.
    Resident in the New York office, he received his law degree, with
    distinction as a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, from Columbia University
    School of Law in 1998.

"Caught between domestic terror groups and a government that brutalizes suspected Islamists, Belbacha cannot safely return to Algeria," his lawyers wrote in asking the Supreme Court to take the case. "His fear is such that he would prefer to endure the oppressive environment of Guantanamo until an asylum state can be found."

Brought to Guantanamo Bay in 2002 from Pakistan, Belbacha was an accountant at the government-owned oil company Sonatrach. He says his problems began when he was recalled for a second term of military service in the Algerian army, prompting death threats against him by terrorists in Groupe Isalmique Armee, then at the height of a violent campaign for an Islamic Algeria.

Belbacha never reported for duty, but says the GIA visited his home at least twice and threatened him and his family. He left the country, traveling to France, England, Pakistan and Afghanistan before being brought to Guantanamo Bay.