Tag: Second Amendment
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Are Rifles Constitutionally Protected Arms?
In the Supreme Court, Illinois has filed its brief in opposition in Harrel v. Raoul (and its companion case Herrera v. Raoul). These cases challenge Illinois’s ban on some semiautomatic rifles (“assault weapons”) and high-capacity magazines. The brief in opposition is remarkable for how it asks the Supreme Court to expound which “arms” the Second Amendment protects. The State’s brief leaves me wondering…
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Is the President Capable of Committing “Insurrection” Against the Government He Leads?
A few weeks ago, Will Baude and Michael Paulsen dropped a legal bomb on the 2024 presidential race by arguing that former President Donald Trump is constitutionally ineligible for a second term in office. They base their argument on Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, which prohibits individuals from holding certain offices if they “engaged in insurrection” after…
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Should State Officials Receive Qualified Immunity for Creatively Resisting Bruen?
Unhappy with the Supreme Court’s decision in New York Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, New York and New Jersey have passed laws designed to nullify Bruen’s practical effect. California and Maryland look set to join them. Before Bruen, these states denied most residents the ability to publicly carry handguns by making licenses to carry…
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Pretextually Eliminating the Right to Bear Arms through Gerrymandered Property Rules
When the Supreme Court required public school desegregation in Brown v. Board of Education, some Southern jurisdictions resisted through legal chicanery. In Virginia, the Prince Edward County school district “closed” its public schools to avoid integration, while setting up government-funded private schools that were “private” in name only. The Supreme Court was not amused. In Griffin v.…
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New York After Bruen
Last Thursday, the Supreme Court held in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, that New York’s policy of limiting licenses to carry pistols to those who can show “proper cause” is unconstitutional under the Second and Fourteenth Amendments. I will have more to say in the coming days about some of the…
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Sovereign Immunity and Military Federalism
Are the federal war powers so absolute and exclusive that they include the power to subject state governments to nonconsensual suits for monetary damages? That was the issue last Tuesday when the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Torres v. Texas Department of Public Safety. Le Roy Torres was a Texas State Trooper who also…
Standing His Ground 