Exploring New Approaches to Unsettled Legal Questions

Tag: Second Amendment

A Call for Sensible Gun Reform Outside of the Home

by Michael Treves*

Does the Sec­ond Amend­ment pro­tect an absolute right to car­ry a firearm in pub­lic places for self-defense? In this Con­tri­bu­tion, Michael Treves (’19) reviews the text and his­to­ry of the Sec­ond Amend­ment and Supreme Court prece­dent, and assess­es the appli­ca­tion of the Sec­ond Amend­ment out­side of the home. Ulti­mate­ly, this Con­tri­bu­tion argues that the “core” of the Sec­ond Amend­ment does not extend out­side of the home, and thus pub­lic car­ry laws do not reg­u­late con­duct with­in the scope of the Sec­ond Amendment.

Immigration and the Second Amendment: Why Undocumented Immigrants Are Entitled to the Fundamental Right to Possess Firearms

by Kathy Buckalew*

Do undoc­u­ment­ed immi­grants have Sec­ond Amend­ment rights? Can they be cat­e­gor­i­cal­ly banned from pos­sess­ing firearms? In this Con­tri­bu­tion, Kathy Buckalew (’19) exam­ines the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of a cat­e­gor­i­cal ban on pos­ses­sion of firearms and ammu­ni­tion by undoc­u­ment­ed immi­grants. The Con­tri­bu­tion argues that undoc­u­ment­ed immi­grants liv­ing in the Unit­ed States have the same indi­vid­ual right to keep and bear arms for pur­pos­es of self-defense as do Unit­ed States cit­i­zens. There­fore, undoc­u­ment­ed immi­grants can­not be cat­e­gor­i­cal­ly pro­hib­it­ed from pos­sess­ing firearms absent an affir­ma­tive show­ing by the gov­ern­ment that such a pro­hi­bi­tion is sub­stan­tial­ly relat­ed to the achieve­ment of an impor­tant gov­ern­ment interest.

Permitting Around the Constitution: Gun License Process After Heller

by Deepa Devanathan*

To what extent can state actors lim­it an indi­vid­u­al’s Sec­ond Amend­ment right after Dis­trict of Colum­bia v. Heller? In this Con­tri­bu­tion, Deepa Devanathan (’19) argues that to prop­er­ly bal­ance Sec­ond Amend­ment rights with a State’s need to pro­tect peo­ple from gun vio­lence, gun per­mit schemes that cov­er both open car­ry and con­cealed car­ry must include a pro­ce­dur­al right to appeal per­mit denials and “good cause” require­ments to get permits.

Marden Series: Understanding the Second Amendment After Heller

by Sarah Good­field*

Do state laws that con­di­tion the issuance of con­cealed car­ry per­mits on an appli­can­t’s show­ing of “good cause” uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly bur­den those appli­cants’ Sec­ond Amend­ment rights? Sarah Good­field (’17) explores this ques­tion, raised at the 2016 “Fall” Mar­den Com­pe­ti­tion, at the New York Uni­ver­si­ty School of Law. Gen­er­al­ly, “good cause” restric­tions require that appli­cants show some spe­cial rea­son for car­ry­ing a con­cealed weapon. Writ­ing from the per­spec­tive of the 2016 “Fall” Mar­den respon­dent, this Con­tri­bu­tion ana­lyzes “good cause” require­ments in their his­tor­i­cal and legal con­text, and ulti­mate­ly con­cludes that such restric­tions do not bur­den core Sec­ond Amend­ment rights.

Marden Series: The Simple Path to Protecting Second Amendment Rights

by Andrew Deb­bins*

Do state laws that con­di­tion the issuance of con­cealed car­ry per­mits on an appli­can­t’s show­ing of “good cause” uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly bur­den those appli­cants’ Sec­ond Amend­ment rights? Andy Deb­bins (’17) address­es this ques­tion, raised at the 2016 “Fall” Mar­den Com­pe­ti­tion, at the New York Uni­ver­si­ty School of Law. Gen­er­al­ly, “good cause” restric­tions require that appli­cants show some spe­cial rea­son for car­ry­ing a con­cealed weapon. Writ­ing from the per­spec­tive of the 2016 “Fall” Mar­den peti­tion­er, this Con­tri­bu­tion argues that a sim­ple, straight-for­ward read­ing of the Sec­ond Amend­ment ren­ders “good cause” restric­tions unconstitutional.

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