The complex relationship between firearms regulation and racial politics during Reconstruction will likely figure in the upcoming Supreme Court case, NYSRPA v. Bruen. Gun rights advocates have leaned heavily into the argument that gun control is inherently racist and was inescapably tainted by this insidious motive during Reconstruction. Unfortunately, this claim rests on a combination […]
The past few weeks have led to a host of new scholarship, including ones that centrally focus on issues of who the Second Amendment protects. Ben Ramberg, Prior Involuntary Institutionalization Does Not Justify a Lifetime Second Amendment Ban: An Originalist Approach to 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(4), Kansas Journal of Law & Pubic Policy, 2021 Forthcoming Abstract: […]
The State’s brief has now been filed in Bruen and we’re only one week away from the Supreme Court’s Long Conference, in which it will consider whether to take up several other pending Second Amendment challenges, including major challenge to open carry laws (Young), large-capacity magazine bans (ANRPC), and as-applied challenges to certain person-based prohibitors […]
The Statute of Northampton of 1328 remains central to the current debate surrounding the limits and protections the Second Amendment provides to carry arms in public.[1] The Statute provided that “no man great nor small, of what condition soever he be, except the king’s servants in his presence…come before the King’s justices, or other of […]
Earlier this summer, in United States v. Perez, a divided panel of the Second Circuit rejected a challenge to 922(g)(5)—the federal law prohibiting gun possession by undocumented immigrants. I missed the case at the time, but Law360 has an interesting write up on the decision and how it fits into broader litigation regarding immigrants’ gun […]
Last week, the Supreme Court announced that it will be live-streaming oral arguments for the beginning of the term, which means that Bruen will be livestreamed at the Court’s website on November 3. The Center will have near-live coverage of arguments, and I may even live tweet (@JacobCharlesNC) through them if I can do so […]
The Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania has released a new film about Guns in America just in time for Constitution Day (Sept. 17). The short film includes a fair amount of perspective from all sides of the debate and is a great resource for a quick overview of the history and […]
In just three weeks, the Supreme Court will reconvene to consider all the pending cert petitions that accumulated over its summer recess. The Term officially begins in about a month, and it is shaping up to be a momentous one. On the Second Amendment front, we’re watching to see if the Court will take any […]
Friend of the blog (and occasional guest blogger) Dru Stevenson has posted a new article on SSRN, “In Defense of Felon-in-Possession Laws,” forthcoming in the Cardozo Law Review. In an era where the felon prohibitor is under attack from both the left (mainly on policy grounds) and the right (mainly on constitutional grounds, at least […]
I am especially happy to announce that the essays are now published from our fall 2020 symposium with the Northwestern University Law Review, The Second Amendment’s Next Chapter. The journal was terrific to work with—for both the symposium itself (which can be viewed here) and during the editing process for these essays. Below are the […]
