Real Estate & Property Law

Mark Your Calendars 2/25/2010: ABA CLE On McDonald Case

By Robert Thomas (inversecondemnation.com)

On February 25, 2010, from 1:30 - 3:30 p.m. Eastern (12:30 CT, 11:30 a.m. MT, 10:30 PT, and 8:30 HST), my colleague and law partner Mark Murakami will be moderating a teleconference sponsored by the ABA Section of State and Local Government Law and the ABA Center for Continuing Legal Education: Beyond Gun Control: McDonald v. City of Chicago and Incorporation of the Bill of Rights.

In March 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in McDonald v. City of Chicago, a case asking whether the Fourteenth Amendment?s Privileges or Immunities Clause or the Due Process Clause makes the Second Amendment applicable to the states and local governments. It is shaping up to be one of the most important cases of the court?s term and it could usher in a new era in constitutional jurisprudence.

The case is a challenge to a Chicago ordinance prohibiting possession of handguns in the home, but the issues at stake go far beyond the usual debate over gun control. The Supreme Court has been asked to overrule nearly 140 years of constitutional law and the selective incorporation doctrine. This CLE program discusses the issues in McDonald and the possible implications of the decision:

• What might the Court do with the request to overrule The SlaughterHouse Cases, 83 U.S. (16 Wall.) 36 (1873)?
• Did the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment incorporate the entire Bill of Rights against the States?
• If the Court rejects selective incorporation what might this mean for state and local law practitioners?
• Might the Court?s decision give rise to same sex marriage or universal health care as federal ?privileges or immunities??

The case has generated national media attention and overwhelming amicus participation. Each of our expert panelists joined an amicus brief in the case and will discuss the positions of the parties and amici, and will offer a preview of the oral arguments.

More information, including on-line registration here. Mark has also set up a resource page for all things about the McDonald case.

In addition to Mark, the faculty includes Michael Kent Curtis (Judge Donald L. Smith Professor in Constitutional and Public Law, Wake Forest University School of Law, Winston-Salem, NC, author of No State Shall Abridge: The Fourteenth Amendment and the Bill of Rights (1986)), Lawrence Rosenthal (Professor of Law, Chapman University School of Law,  Orange, CA), and Ilya Shapiro (Senior Fellow in Constitutional Studies and Editor-in-Chief, Cato Supreme Court Review, Cato Institute, Washington, DC).

We've followed this issue since reading Professor Curtis' book back in the day, so will be signing up for the program.

Full post as published by inversecondemnation on December 30, 2009 (boomark / email).