In reading the Supreme Court’s recent double-jeopardy opinion, Gamble v. United States, it struck me just how many major constitutional law cases involve guns and guns laws, even if sometimes at the periphery. Gamble, for instance, complained that his state law conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm precluded his indictment under […]
In February, the Charleston Law Review hosted a symposium on “The Second Amendment 228 Years Later.” Papers from that symposium were just recently published to Westlaw. Unfortunately, I don’t see the articles publicly available for free, except for those on SSRN, but below I’ll post the citations for this interesting set of papers to come […]
Earlier this week, the Supreme Court unanimously decided a sleepy statutory interpretation question concerning the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act. That case, however, may contain clues about how the Court could approach the interpretive question involved in the Sandy Hook litigation over the Protection for Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA).
Last week, we highlighted the five pending petitions asking the Supreme Court to review gun-related rulings. We’ve got one update, in which the Court denied cert, and one to add to the “watch list.”
As this blog highlighted last week, the Seventh Circuit in Kanter v. Barr rejected a fraudster’s attempt to have the court declare 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), the felon dispossession statute, unconstitutional as applied to him. It did the same thing last Thursday in Hatfield v. Barr. But did it also upend its normal inquiry?
The Connecticut Supreme Court recently allowed a suit arising from the Sandy Hook shooting to proceed against Remington. In doing so, it rejected Remington’s argument that the Protection for Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) bars the suit. Remington plans to seek U.S. Supreme Court review. But can it seek that review now?
“Second Amendment sanctuary counties”—counties that refuse to enforce state regulation of firearms—represent the latest skirmish in the seemingly interminable debates over gun policy in America; debates that, more often than not, break along geographical, cultural, and political lines: urban versus rural; blue versus red.
In a sign that litigants are hoping the changed composition of the Supreme Court—Justice Kavanaugh’s replacement of Justice Kennedy—will lead to reconsideration of some lower court Second Amendment precedents, plaintiffs recently brought a lawsuit challenging Maryland’s requirement that an applicant for a concealed carry permit show a “good and substantial reason” in order to obtain […]
In Heller, McDonald, and now potentially in NYSRPA, the Supreme Court established Second Amendment principles that have been the basis for more than 1,000 Second Amendment challenges in the past ten years. Notably, each of the Supreme Court’s cases involved an outlier law—DC and Chicago were the only notable US cities with handgun bans, and […]
The Supreme Court in January agreed to hear its first Second Amendment challenge after a decade of (relative) silence. But other than New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. City of New York (NYSRPA), there are—by my count—five other pending petitions asking the Court to review lower courts’ Second Amendment (or related firearms) rulings, […]
Second Amendment scholarship has changed dramatically in its substance, style, diversity, and depth. Many elements of that transformation are hard to quantify, but others—including the sheer increase in volume—are more susceptible to rough-and-ready empirical snapshots.
In Kanter v. Barr, decided this March, the Seventh Circuit rejected a non-violent felon’s as-applied challenge to 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), which prohibits those convicted of (nearly) all felony offenses from possessing firearms for life. The majority decision, and the dissent, highlight a fraught debate about the historical justification undergirding these types of prohibitions.
Welcome to the blog for the Center for Firearms Law at Duke Law School. The blog will highlight important cases, scholarship, research, and other news about the Second Amendment and the broader debates over gun rights and regulation. Like the Center, the blog aims to present controversial issues in a fair, nonpartisan, and balanced way. […]
