Law Commons^™

Rescuing The Fourteenth Amendment Privileges Or Immunities Clause: How "Attrition Or Parliamentary Processes" Begat Accidental Ambiguity; How Ambiguity Begat Slaughter-House, Michael Anthony Lawrence

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

"Gun Show Loophole" Bills: A Study Of Legislative Misdirection In 2009, Phillip Van Cleave

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

In the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007, which left thirty-two students and faculty dead at the hands of a student armed with two handguns, gun-control organizations saw an opportunity to press their legislative agenda items forward with vigor. A host of gun-control bills were introduced in the 2008 and, to a lesser extent, the 2009 General Assembly sessions. For pro-gun groups, Virginia Tech's policy of not allowing any guns on campus was more proof that gun control only disarms good people. These groups argued that criminals, by definition, ignore the law and will simply get their guns …

The Hidden Second Amendment Framework Within "District Of Columbia V. Heller", Andrew R. Gould

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Second Amendment has always been shrouded in constitutional mystery. For most of our history, this mystery has centered on whether the Second Amendment protects an individual or collective right to keep and bear arms. The Supreme Court had not addressed the issue in any meaningful fashion, and lower courts continuously struggled with it, leading legal commentators to produce countless books, articles, and symposia on the topic.

The Court resolved this central Second Amendment question in June 2008 when it decided District of Columbia v. Heller. In Heller, the Court squarely confronted the meaning of the Second Amendment and held …

St. George Tucker's Lecture Notes, The Second Amendment, And Originalist Methodology: A Critical Comment, Saul Cornell

NULR Online

No abstract provided.

An Opinion Without Standards: The Supreme Court's Refusal To Adopt A Standard Of Constitutional Review In District Of Columbia V. Heller Will Likely Cause Headaches For Future Judicial Review Of Gun-Control Regulations, Ryan L. Card

Brigham Young University Journal of Public Law

No abstract provided.

From Ballots To Bullets: District Of Columbia V. Heller And The New Civil Rights, Anders Walker

All Faculty Scholarship

This article posits that the Supreme Court's recent Second Amendment ruling District of Columbia v. Heller is a victory for civil rights, but not in the sense that most activists from the 1960s would recognize. Rather than a product of mid-century legal liberalism, Heller marks the culmination of almost forty years of coalition-based popular constitutionalism aimed at transforming the individual right to bear arms and the common law right to "employ deadly force in self-defense" into new civil rights. The implications of this are potentially great. By declaring the right to use deadly force in self-defense an "essential" right, the …

Second Amendment Decision Rules, Calvin R. Massey

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A View Through The Gun Show Loophole, Andrew Goddard

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

The term "Gun Show Loophole" came about as a result of the passage of the Firearm Owners Protection Act of 19861 and the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993. These laws effectively created a dual standard for gun sales based on the federal license status of the seller. The Brady Act mandated that licensed gun dealers must conduct criminal background checks on potential buyers regardless of whether the sale takes place at the dealer's store or at a gun show, whereas the Firearm Owners Protection Act expressly exempted "persons making occasional sales or selling all or part of a …

A View Through The Gun Show Loophole, Andrew Goddard

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

The term "Gun Show Loophole" came about as a result of the passage of the Firearm Owners Protection Act of 19861 and the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993. These laws effectively created a dual standard for gun sales based on the federal license status of the seller. The Brady Act mandated that licensed gun dealers must conduct criminal background checks on potential buyers regardless of whether the sale takes place at the dealer's store or at a gun show, whereas the Firearm Owners Protection Act expressly exempted "persons making occasional sales or selling all or part of a …

Gun Show Loophole Bills: A Study Of Legislative Misdirection In 2009, Philip Van Cleave

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

In the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007, which left thirty-two students and faculty dead at the hands of a student armed with two handguns, gun-control organizations saw an opportunity to press their legislative agenda items forward with vigor. A host of gun-control bills were introduced in the 2008 and, to a lesser extent, the 2009 General Assembly sessions. For pro-gun groups, Virginia Tech's policy of not allowing any guns on campus was more proof that gun control only disarms good people. These groups argued that criminals, by definition, ignore the law and will simply get their guns …

District Of Columbia V. Heller: Failing To Establish A Standard For The Future, Lindsay Goldberg

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Arms For Their Defence - An Historical, Legal And Textual Analysis Of The English Right To Have Arms And Whether The Second Amendment Should Be Incorporated In Mcdonald V. City Of Chicago , Patrick J. Charles

Cleveland State Law Review

This Article analyzes the arguments Individual Rights Scholars have made concerning the right to have arms and their influence on Supreme Court decisions regarding gun control. The author compares these arguments with historical English gun control laws to show that there is a misunderstanding between the idea that gun ownership rights have always been protected by government.

A Right To Bear Firearms But Not To Use Them? Defensive Force Rules And The Increasing Effectiveness Of Non-Lethal Weapons, Paul H. Robinson

All Faculty Scholarship

Under existing American law, advances in non-lethal weapons increasingly make the use of firearms for defense unlawful and the Second Amendment of little practical significance. As the effectiveness and availability of less lethal weapons increase, the choice of a lethal firearm for protection is a choice to use more force than is necessary, in violation of existing self-defense law. At the same time, a shift to non-lethal weapons increases the frequency of situations in which a person’s use of force is authorized because defenders with non-lethal weapons are freed from the special proportionality requirements that limit the use of deadly …

The Right To Defensive Arms After District Of Columbia V. Heller, Michael P. O'Shea

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

This Right Is Not Allowed By Governments That Are Afraid Of The People: The Public Meaning Of The Second Amendment When The Fourteenth Amendment Was Ratified , Clayton E. Cramer, Nicholas J. Johnson, George A. Moscary

Faculty Scholarship

The lingering question following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in District of Columbia v. Heller is whether the Court will employ the Fourteenth Amendment to incorporate the newly confirmed right to keep and bear arms as a limitation on states. The answer will hinge substantially on the Court's assessment of the intent and purpose of the Fourteenth Amendment with regard to the right to keep and bear arms. Discerning such intent requires detailed evaluation of the context within which the amendment emerged and the understanding of the right to keep and bear arms at the time. This Essay pursues in …

Guns As Smut: Defending The Home-Bound Second Amendment, Darrell A. H. Miller

Faculty Scholarship

In District of Columbia v. Heller, the Supreme Court held that the Second Amendment guarantees a personal, individual right to keep and bear arms. But the Court left lower courts and legislatures adrift on the fundamental question of scope. While the Court stated in dicta that some regulation may survive constitutional scrutiny, it left the precise contours of the right, and even the method by which to determine those contours, for 'future evaluation."

This Article offers a provocative proposal for tackling the issue of Second Amendment scope, one tucked in many dresser drawers across the nation: Treat the Second Amendment …

District Of Columbia V. Heller And Originalism, Lawrence B. Solum

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

On June 26, 2008, the United States Supreme Court handed down its 5-4 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, striking a District of Columbia statute that prohibits the possession of useable handguns in the home on the ground that it violated the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution. Justice Scalia's majority opinion drew dissents from Justice Stevens and Justice Breyer. Collectively, the opinions in Heller represent the most important and extensive debate on the role of original meaning in constitutional interpretation among the members of the contemporary Supreme Court.

This article investigates the relationship between originalist constitutional …

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 …