Law Commons^™

The Wages Of Originalist Sin: District Of Columbia V. Heller, Jeffrey Shaman

College of Law Faculty

This article analyzes and critiques the Supreme Court’s recent decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, which ruled that that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess firearms unconnected with service in a militia. The focus of the article is on Justice Scalia’s majority opinion in Heller, which adheres strictly to an extreme view of originalism holding that the Constitution should be interpreted by ascertaining its original meaning at the time it was adopted. Justice Scalia believes that the Constitution has a static meaning, and that changes in the world around us are of no relevance to constitutional …