Cardozo Law Review is currently accepting submissions for a special issue on gun ownership rights. It’s great to see a law review focused on the importance of scholarship for the gun rights debate. Legal scholarship–and scholarship generally–has had an immense impact on the courts’ interpretation of the Second Amendment and there’s every reason to expect […]
Today I’m highlighting further thoughts on Miller v. Bonta, the California federal court decision striking down the state’s assault weapons ban, which I’ve written on several times already last week–here and here. This time, the analysis comes from my Duke Law colleague Charles J. Dunlap Jr., the former deputy judge advocate general of the United States […]
Two weeks from this Friday, we’ll get the opening brief in Corlett. That brief will tell us a lot about how the petitioners are construing the Court’s limitation of the question presented and what arguments they believe are the strongest in their favor. Libertarian Party of Erie County, challenging New York’s pistol permit regime, also […]
For a local angle this morning, I’m highlighting a new essay on the ambiguities surrounding firearm prohibitions for domestic violence related offenses in North Carolina. It’s a short but interesting piece–check it out! Lanie Summerlin, “May be Unlawful”: Ambiguities Surrounding Federal and State Limits on Firearm Possession by Domestic Abusers in North Carolina, 9 Wake […]
In yesterday’s post, I unpacked the court’s decision in Miller v. Bonta, striking down California’s assault weapons ban. In today’s post, I look at the case with a more critical eye. I first focus on matters of doctrine and then turn to style. As a doctrinal matter, I see three important aspects to the case: […]
Last week, in Miller v. Bonta, Judge Roger T. Benitez of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California, struck down California’s assault weapons ban as unconstitutional under the Second Amendment. In today’s post, I’ll describe the doctrinal and theoretical moves the opinion makes, and tomorrow’s post will provide further analysis and […]
One big news item on the Second Amendment-in-the-courts front is the district court opinion last Friday striking down California’s assault weapons ban in Miller v. Bonta. It’s not hard to see that case ending up before the Supreme Court. It’s the first federal judicial opinion striking down one of these laws, expressly disagreeing with the […]
Several new pieces exploring issues related to the Second Amendment and firearms law are on SSRN and have been or will be published soon. Michael R. Ulrich, Second Amendment Realism, Cardozo Law Review (forthcoming) Abstract: In District of Columbia v. Heller, the Supreme Court declared a constitutionally protected individual right to keep and bear arms. […]
Last week, in Barris v. Stroud Township, a divided intermediate appellate court in Pennsylvania invalidated a local ordinance restricting firearm discharge in the city outside recognized exceptions. That ordinance, citing “the density of the population in the Township of Stroud” found it “necessary that the discharging of firearms be regulated for the protection of the […]
This past week brought two new Second Amendment cert petitions to the Supreme Court’s docket: Young v. Hawaii and Weber v. Ohio. We’ve discussed Young at length on this blog; it concerns the constitutionality of Hawaii’s open carry restrictions. In many ways, Young is the flipside of Corlett because the latter (especially as limited by […]