Law Commons^™

The Second Amendment And Gun Control, Erwin Chemerinsky

Erwin Chemerinsky

No abstract provided.

Does Heller Protect A Right To Carry Guns Outside The Home?, Michael C. Dorf

Michael C. Dorf

No abstract provided.

Identity Politics And The Second Amendment, Michael C. Dorf

Michael C. Dorf

No abstract provided.

What Does The Second Amendment Mean Today?, Michael C. Dorf

Michael C. Dorf

A growing body of scholarship argues that the Second Amendment protects a right of individuals to possess firearms, regardless of whether those individuals are organized in state militias. Proponents of the individual right view do not merely disagree with those who champion the competing view that the Second Amendment poses few if any obstacles to most forms of gun control legislation by the state or federal governments. They appear to believe that the Second Amendment has been subject to uniquely shabby treatment by the courts and, until recently, academic commentators. This Article argues that the Second Amendment has not been …

The Second Amendment: An Analysis Of District Of Columbia V. Heller, Eileen Kaufman

Eileen Kaufman

No abstract provided.

Banning High Capacity Magazines: Heller And The Right To Bear Arms, Matthew Eitelberg

Matthew J Eitelberg

The debate over gun control, once moribund, is now the topic of political conversation in state legislatures and in Congress. The massacre of 20 schoolchildren and 6 school employees at Sandy Hook Elementary School has made gun control a very real possibility. One target of recent gun control measures is a prohibition on the sale and manufacture of detachable high-capacity magazines for semiautomatic weapons. Presently, at the state and federal level, legislation has been proposed, or is in the process of being implemented, that would prohibit the sale and manufacture of detachable high-capacity magazines for semiautomatic weapons. Such proposals implicate …

Mcdonald V. Chicago, Self-Defense, The Right To Bear Arms, And The Future, Richard Aynes

Richard L. Aynes

This article examines the opinion of the Court in McDonald v. Chicago and its implications for the future. The author participated as a party-amicus in the case and an article he authored in 1993 was cited by the Court. Using a concept that others have applied in other situations, this paper suggests that Chicago was a “outlier” and that this case simply involved reigning in a maverick outlier. While the paper finds Justice Thomas’s concurring opinion (with the exception of dicta on the establishment clause) being the most faithful to the meaning, intention, and public understanding of the 14th Amendment, …

Mcdonald V. Chicago, The Fourteenth Amendment, The Right To Bear Arms And The Right Of Self-Defense, Richard L. Aynes

Richard L. Aynes

The Supreme Court of the United States has granted certiorari in the case of McDonald v. City of Chicago to consider this question: "Whether the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms is incorporated as against the States by the Fourteenth Amendment’s Privileges or Immunities or Due Process Clauses." This case follows and seeks to build upon District of Columbia v. Heller which held that the Second Amendment protects both the right to self-defense and what has been termed an individual right to bear arms. Of course, Heller’s application is limited to the federal government and has no direct …

Guns And Speech Technologies: How The Right To Bear Arms Affects Copyright Regulations Of Speech Technologies, Edward Lee

Edward Lee

This Essay examines the possible effect the Supreme Court’s landmark Second Amendment ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller will have on future cases brought under the Free Press Clause. Based on the text and history of the Constitution, the connection between the two Clauses is undeniable, as the Heller Court itself repeatedly suggested. Only two provisions in the entire Constitution protect individual rights to a technology: the Second Amendment’s right to bear “arms” and the Free Press Clause’s right to the freedom of the “press,” meaning the printing press. Both rights were viewed, moreover, as preexisting, natural rights to …

All The Way Down The Slippery Slope: Gun Prohibition In England And Some Lessons For Civil Liberties In America, David B. Kopel, Joseph Olson

David B Kopel

Whenever civil liberties issues are contested, proponents of greater restrictions often chide civil liberties defenders for being unwilling to offer moderate concessions. Frequently, persons advocating restrictions on civil liberties claim that the "moderate" restriction will not infringe the core civil liberty. When rights advocates raise the "slippery slope" argument, they are criticized for being excessively fearful. The goal of the article is to refine our understanding of "slippery slopes" by examining a case in which a civil liberty really did slide all the way down the slippery slope.

The right to arms in Great Britain was entirely unrestricted at the …