The Supreme Court handed down a bunch of rulings yesterday. The two that I find most interesting relate to patents and guns. Both rulings are disappointing, as I am against software patents and for stricter gun control. But they are also not as terrible as I feared they might be. As far as I can tell, on both counts the Supreme Court handed down fairly narrow rulings. The initial analysis over at Groklaw of the Bilski decision (patents) suggests there are plenty of openings in this ruling for potentially stricter limits on software patents. Similarly, the Chicago gun decision appears to still keep it possible for cities to attempt to regulate gun ownership (just not ban it outright). Unfortunately, this means that companies will continue to get sued over frivolous software patents and cities will continue to be sued over gun control ordinances. But the silver lining here is that this lower courts still have room to move and for new cases to make their way back to the Supreme Court. Let’s hope that at some point we will have a different Supreme Court too!
