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The Limits Of Second Amendment Originalism And The Constitutional Case For Gun Control, Lawrence Rosenthal

Lawrence Rosenthal

The Scope Of Regulatory Authority Under The Second Amendment, Lawrence Rosenthal

Lawrence Rosenthal

This paper will appear as a chapter in a forthcoming book to be published by the Johns Hopkins University Press that analyzes the efficacy of firearms regulation. In this paper, the authors analyze the emerging jurisprudential framework for assessing the validity of firearms regulation under the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution. This emerging framework, the authors contend, preserves substantial regulatory authority for federal, state, and local governments. The authors then assess the constitutionality of the leading proposals for regulatory reform that have emerged in the wake of the tragic events at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

Second Amendment Plumbing After Mcdonald, Lawrence Rosenthal

Lawrence Rosenthal

These essays were written for a debate with Professor Joyce Lee Malcolm appearing in the Northwestern University Law Review concerning the standard of scrutiny to be applied to gun control laws in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision in McDonald v. City of Chicago. The opening essay argues that the text of the Second Amendment, the history of gun-control regulation, and the approach taken by the Supreme Court in McDonald and District of Columbia v. Heller argue for some form of intermediate scrutiny capable of coming to grips with the fact that the populace capable of bearing arms, that …

Second Amendment Plumbing After Heller: Of Incorporation, Standards Of Scrutiny, Well-Regulated Militias And Criminal Street Gangs, Lawrence Rosenthal

Lawrence Rosenthal

The decision of the United States Supreme Court in District of Columbia v. Heller ended one debate about the Second Amendment while beginning another.

Prior to Heller, the principal point on which courts and scholars had joined issue was whether the Second Amendment secures an individual right to bear arms or a right to participate in an organized militia. In Heller, the Court came down on the individual-rights side while resolving little else about the extent to which the Second Amendment will constrain the power to regulate firearms. Among the many questions left for future litigation, the two most important …