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Second Amendment Incorporation Through The Fourteenth Amendment Privileges Or Immunities And Due Process Clauses, Michael Anthony Lawrence

Missouri Law Review

The Second Amendment, alternately maligned over the years as the black sheep of the constitutional family and praised as a palladium of the liberties of a republic, should be recognized by the United States Supreme Court to apply to the several States through the Fourteenth Amendment privileges or immunities clause or, alternatively, through the due process clause. This article suggests that the issue of Second Amendment incorporation presents a useful contemporary mechanism for the Court to revive the longdormant Fourteenth Amendment privileges or immunities clause. Such judicial recognition of the clause is necessary to respect the Framers' vision, as inspired …