In the past few weeks, watchers of the Supreme Court noted several seemingly ridiculous decisions that were all-out power grabs by the top court in the land:

• They determined that Congress cannot make immigration laws, nor can the Executive branch enforce them (Dada v. Mukasey)
• They determined that the Executive branch cannot perform its Constitutionally-mandated job of making war, by saying that enemy combatants are afforded the same rights as United States citizens (Boumediene v. Bush)
• They determined that states do not have the right to determine the use the death penalty against people convicted of child rape (Kennedy v. Louisiana)

WASHINGTON (AP) – Silent on central questions of gun control for two centuries, the Supreme Court found its voice Thursday in a decision affirming the right to have guns for self-defense in the home and addressing a constitutional riddle almost as old as the republic over what it means to say the people may keep and bear arms.

The court’s 5-4 ruling struck down the District of Columbia’s ban on handguns and imperiled similar prohibitions in other cities, Chicago and San Francisco among them. Federal gun restrictions, however, were expected to remain largely intact.