Academic

Junger on the Armorial Bearings

By Lawrence Solum

Peter D. Junger (deceased, former member of the Case Western Reserve law faculty) is the author of The Original Plain Meaning of the Right to Bear Arms, posted on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

In this article, written about twenty years ago, Professor Peter Junger developed an idiosyncratic interpretation of the Second Amendment: the right to bear arms is the right to display armorial bearings - coats of arms - and the original plain meaning of the Amendment is that the government shall not infringe upon one's right to be a lady or a gentleman. That interpretation was derived (loosely, to be sure) from a 1955 decision of the Court of Chivalry, an English court (known to Blackstone) that had been silent since 1737. Whether Professor Junger, who died in November 2006, was serious about this or not, this unfinished article is a fitting memorial to a person with an amazingly creative mind.

A nice bit of whimsy from the late Prof. Junger.

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on January 14, 2008 (boomark / email).