Center Executive Director and lecturing fellow. Charles writes and teaches on the Second Amendment and firearms law. His primary academic interests include the theoretical, conceptual, and methodological issues confronting nascent Second Amendment jurisprudence and the immunity and related questions surrounding affirmative litigation against the firearms industry. His scholarship has appeared or is forthcoming in the Virginia Law Review, North Carolina Law Review, and Law & Contemporary Problems, among others.
There was a curious exchange in the most recent cases testing the boundaries of Title VII’s proscription against sex discrimination in employment. In R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes v. EEOC, an employee who alleges she was fired for identifying as a transgender woman claims that that adverse action violates the Civil Rights Act of […]
Although the Supreme Court issued no new orders this week, there’s been some movement in the cases pending before the Court. Below isthe updated graph with the now-current status of the high court’s gun docket.
In response to the horrific Las Vegas massacre, which left 58 dead and many more injured, the Trump Administration issued a Final Rule in December 2018 classifying bump stocks–the device the shooter used to inflict maximal carnage–as “machine guns” and thus banned under federal law. A group of individuals and entities who owned previously legal […]
We’re excited to announce a new blog feature that will be a recurring Monday fixture of the blog throughout the Supreme Court’s Term. Each week, we will provide an up-to-date run down of where things stand with the Court’s firearms law and Second Amendment docket. To that end, each Monday will feature an updated chart […]
Last week, several plaintiffs filed a petition for certiorari asking the Supreme Court to review a Seventh Circuit decision upholding Illinois’s refusal to allow most non-residents to apply for a concealed-carry license. Here’s from the Question Presented: This Court has held that the Second Amendment “guarantee[s] the individual right to possess and carry weapons in […]
As I highlighted at the beginning of the week, heading into the new Term, the Supreme Court had (by my count) 14 outstanding petitions for certiorari raising Second Amendment or firearms-law related questions. Many of these cases had been considered at conferences last Term and, we suspect, are being held pending the outcome in NYSRPA. Coming out […]
Ryan Curry has published a new paper in the latest issue of the Tulsa Law Review, “An Evolving Right: The Shifting Core of the Second Amendment and Its Effect on Public-Carry.” He catalogues the various ways courts have characterized the “core” of the Second Amendment right and argues that the Supreme Court needs to step […]
As the Supreme Court starts its new Term, with one Second Amendment case docketed (for now), it seems like a good time to review the outstanding petitions awaiting action at the Court. These petitions raise a variety of Second Amendment and firearms-related issues, including important questions of statutory interpretation and the scope of agency discretion. […]
Nelson Lund has posted a new paper to SSRN, History and Tradition in Second Amendment Jurisprudence, forthcoming in the University of Florida Journal of Law & Public Policy. Lund’s paper is fascinating and provocative. He argues that the approach advocated by then-Judge Kavanaugh—that focuses on text, history, and tradition in lieu of traditional methods of […]
In Ezell v. City of Chicago, the Seventh Circuit concluded that it had “to follow the Court’s lead in resolving questions about the scope of the Second Amendment by consulting its original public meaning as both a starting point and an important constraint on the analysis.” In other words, the Seventh Circuit thought it was […]
