Miller, Colt 45s, and Natural Law. Scotusblog. This article for the “Heller Discussion Board” provides a brief overview of Brian Frye’s excellent article on Miller, which was cited by Justice Scalia. Next, the article says that DC’s ban on all self-loading rifles and handguns is almost certainly unconstitutional under the Heller test. Finally, the article discusses the presence of natural law in the Heller opinion, and suggests that the strong judicial affirmation of the natural law right of self-defense may, in the long run, have significant global effects.
Over at ReasonOnline, I argue against the complaints of libertarians who complain that Heller did not go far enough. I analogize Heller to the initial Supreme Court decisions in the 1930s which began to enforce Equal Protection and the First Amendment. It would be unrealistic to expect a 1934 court to enforce those rights in a maximalist way, without the foundation of decades of doctrinal development. The same point applies to the Court’s new jurisprudence of Second Amendment enforcement.
Conservative Activists Key to DC Handgun Decision is my article for Human Events. This article is not about EJ Dionne’s unfounded complaints about “judicial activism.” It’s about the influence of citizen activists who made helped ensure that handgun prohibition remained rare in the U.S., and that a sufficient number of Supreme Court Justices were appointed by Presidents who agreed with the Standard Model of the Second Amendment.