Craft & Sheppard's Supreme Court Review

Second Amendment 

The Second Amendment reads: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”  In D.C. v. Heller, a sharply divided Court held that a District of Columbia law prohibiting an individual from possessing handguns at home violated the Second Amendment.   The Amendment contains a prefatory clause--“[a] well regulated Militia … free State”--and an operative clause--“the right of the people to keep and bear Arms ...”.  The Court determined that the former clause did not limit the latter clause, undertook a textual analysis, cited weathered precedent and venerable commentators, expressed the Second Amendment’s purposes, and concluded:  The Second Amendment confers an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with militia service.  An individual may use a firearm for lawful purposes such as self-defense in the home.  The result seemed at odds with the Court's long standing decisions, and not surprisingly, the Court limited them, most notably in its oft-cited 1939 case, U.S. v. Miller. While vastly expanding the Second Amendment individual right “to keep and bear arms”, the Court continued to narrow individual rights guaranteed by the First and Fourth Amendments, which, too, are a part of the Bill of Rights.