Supreme Court Sound Bites

Sound Bite: Facts of the case Two years ago, in District of Columbia v Heller, this Court held that the Second Amendment protects the right to keep and bear arms for the purpose of self-defense, and struck down a District of Columbia law that banned the possession of handguns in the home. Chicago, (hereinafter City),[...]

Sound Bite: The Bill of Rights, including the Second Amendment, originally applied only to the Federal Government, not to the States. The Bill of Rights, including the Second Amendment, originally applied only to the Federal Government, not to the States, but the constitutional Amendments adopted in the Civil War’s aftermath fundamentally altered the federal system.[...]

Sound Bite: The Fourteenth Amendment makes the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms fully applicable to the States Justice Black championed the alternative theory, that §1 of the Fourteenth Amendment totally incorporated all of the Bill of Rights’ provisions, but the Court never has embraced that theory.   The Court eventually moved in[...]

Sound Bite: The right to keep and bear arms is enforceable against the States, because it is a privilege of American citizenship recognized by §1 of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court is correct in describing the Second Amendment-right as “fundamental” to the American scheme of ordered liberty, and “deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and[...]

Sound Bite: Citizens must be permitted “to use handguns for the core lawful purpose of self-defense.” The Court must decide whether that right is fundamental to the Nation’s scheme of ordered liberty, or, as the Court has said in a related context, whether it is “deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition." Heller points,[...]

Sound Bite: Holding Justice Alito delivered the opinion of the Court, concluding that the Fourteenth Amendment incorporates the Second Amendment right, recognized in Heller, to keep and bear arms for the purpose of self-defense.