The majority in State v. Sieyes rejects a 17-year-old’s challenge to Washington’s restriction on gun possession by under-18-year-olds; eight Justices take this view. The restriction is basically a ban on under-18-year-olds’ possessing guns, with exceptions for possession at home (for self-defense) or on family property, with a parent’s permission, as well as for certain lawful […]
Archive | Guns
Washington Supreme Court Holds Second Amendment Is Incorporated
The case is State v. Sieyes; six Justices (including the Justice who dissented in part) took this view, two didn’t reach the question, and one signed the majority opinion but with the notation “result only,” which I take it also means that she didn’t express a view on the question. Thanks to Aaron Bartlett and […]
Podcast extravaganza
Five new podcasts from the Independence Institute’s iVoices.org: 1. The University of Montana’s Rob Natelson on the Executive Vesting Clause. Natelson argues that the first clause of Article II grants the President no additional powers–contrary to the theory that the clause gives the President almost all the powers formerly possessed by English Kings. 36 minutes. 2. The […]
Gun Nuts vs. Constitution Nuts
Brian Doherty reports on the jockeying between the gun owners challenging Chicago’s gun ban and the NRA in McDonald v. Chicago.
How the right to arms saved the non-violent civil rights protesters
Over at The Faculty Lounge, there are some pictures of sit-ins from the early 1960s. Regarding a 1963 sit-in in Jackson, Mississippi, TFL writes: “By one account, members of the all-White Jackson police force stood guard outside, while several FBI agents (the guys in back wearing shades) ‘observed’ from inside. That White guy at the […]
Roscoe Pound on the Second Amendment
“In the urban industrial society of today a general right to bear efficient arms so as to be enabled to resist oppression by the government would mean that gangs could exercise an extra-legal rule which would defeat the whole Bill of Rights.” Roscoe Pound, The Development of Constitutional Guarantees of Liberty 91 (1957). Although Pound […]
Bipartisanship on the Right to Bear Arms
OK, it’s not entirely contemporaneous, and the 8 years made a big difference in the political fortunes of the parties; still it struck me as worth noting: From the 1856 Republican Party platform: Resolved: That while the Constitution of the United States was ordained and established by the people, in order to “form a more […]
Debunking rumors about Texas gun shows
Austin Gun Rights Examiner Howard Nemerov once again shows why he is one of the best journalists writing on the gun issue. His latest column debunks an Internet rumor that the BATFE forced a Texas gun show to allow sales only by federally licensed firearms dealers.
Cardozo Law Rev. symposium on McDonald v. Chicago
Cardozo De Novo, the online companion to the Carodozo Law Review, has a symposium issue on firearms law and policy, with a focus on McDonald v. Chicago. Articles include The Second Amendment in the Living Constitution, by me; a critique of the Stevens dissent in Heller, by David Hardy; and a proposal by Michael Anthony […]
Eleventh Circuit Upholds Ban on Gun Possession by Misdemeanants Convicted of Domestic Violence
The case is United States v. White; here’s the relevant analysis: Seems pretty sketchy to me. Section 922(g)(9) is literally not a “longstanding prohibition,” since it’s quite recent, so whatever force longstanding tradition might have had in Heller, it doesn’t apply here. And while the possession of guns by violent misdemeanants may indeed be “dangerous,” […]
“When Scalia Was Able to Hold the Majority in Heller….”
Over at Court Beat, Joan Biskupic recently recalled a conversation she had with Justice Thomas in the course of writing her book on Justice Scalia: Thomas also observed that when Scalia was able to hold the majority in Heller (and largely keep criticism of colleagues in check), Scalia didn’t flaunt his big moment as the […]
Privileges or Immunities Extravaganza
By David Kopel on December 21, 2009 3:45 pm in Constitutional History, Constitutional Theory, Fourteenth Amendment, Guns, Supreme Court
On March 2, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in McDonald v. Chicago, a challenge to the handgun bans in Chicago and Oak Park. The Question Presented by the Court asked if the bans should be considered unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process clause, or under the Privileges or Immunities clause. There’s been […]
Justice Ginsburg: Supreme Court may eventually overrule Heller
On Thursday, Dec. 17, Justice Ginsburg spoke at a luncheon of the Harvard Club of Washington, D.C. I was not present at the luncheon, but I have heard, third-hand, that she spoke on the value of dissenting opinions. She said that sometimes a dissent can become the majority of a “future, wiser court.” As an […]
The Right to Arms in the Living Constitution
By David Kopel on December 19, 2009 1:55 pm in Congress, Constitutional History, Fourteenth Amendment, Guns, Popular Culture, Registration, Supreme Court
That’s the topic of my new article, for a forthcoming issue of Cardozo Law Review de Novo (the on-line supplement to Cardozo’s printed journal). The article will be part of a symposium issue on McDonald v. Chicago. Here’s the abstract for my Cardozo article: This Article presents a brief history of the Second Amendment as […]
Stephen Halbrook Christmas Special
By David Kopel on December 17, 2009 6:34 pm in Constitutional History, Criminal Law, Fourteenth Amendment, Guns, Supreme Court
A fifty-three minute podcast interview with Stephen Halbrook. Over the last three decades, Halbrook has been the greatest legal champion of Second Amendment rights. As a scholar, as an attorney (with a 3-0 record in the Supreme Court), and as a public advocate, Halbrook has done tremendous work in saving the Second Amendment from nullification, and in putting the […]