Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Court to Mull Individual Right to Drill for Oil

by Scott Ott for Scrapple Face

When the U.S. Supreme Court reconvenes on the first Monday in October, the nine Justices may consider whether the Constitutional preamble clause “secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity” guarantees an individual right to drill for oil.

Now that the court, in a 5-4 ruling on the Heller case, has upheld the Second Amendment right of “the people,” not just state-run militias, to keep and bear arms, some scholars say the court may be willing to go the next logical step and recognize the peoples’ right to acquire their own fuel.

With gasoline around $4 per gallon, the U.S. Congress continues to prevent Americans from drilling and refining, a move that would increase supply, and thus lower prices. However, so-called “Preamble advocates”, argue that the founding document guarantees the right of citizens to drill here and now.

“The two issues are quite similar,” said Glenn Reynolds, America’s most widely-read Constitutional scholar. “It’s all about throwing off the yoke of tyranny. Whether that’s by arming oneself with a gun as a safeguard against political despots, or building a derrick on one’s own property to secure the blessings of liquid liberty, these are fundamental Constitutional rights.”