Academic

Denning & Reynolds on District of Columbia v. Heller in the Lower Courts

By Lawrence Solum

Brannon P. Denning and Glenn Harlan Reynolds (Cumberland School of Law and University of Tennessee College of Law) have posted Heller High Water(Mark?) Lower Courts and the New Right to Keep and Bear Arms (Hastings Law Journal, Vol. 60, p. 1245, 2009) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

This paper examines the post-Heller Second Amendment case law in the lower courts and concludes that although federal courts are not rushing to overturn gun laws under the Second Amendment, they are moving more rapidly to implement Heller than under previous 'revolutionary' decisions such as U.S. v. Lopez. There is also some evidence that state courts are taking the right to arms more seriously, with the additional possibility that the new federal right to arms may boost interest in the numerous state right-to-arms provisions. Finally, by characterizing gun ownership as a protected individual right, Heller has served to "renormalize" firearms ownership, a change in legal philosophy that may be as significant as any doctrinal shifts.

Highly recommended.

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on August 19, 2009 (boomark / email).