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Our Comma Delimited Social Compact

By Eric L. Lipman

Ross E. Davies, Professor of Law at George Mason University School of Law, posted to the Social Science Research Network on Wednesday a fascinating article on the various versions of the Second Amendment that are in circulation ? notably historical versions of Second Amendment that contain no commas, one comma, two commas and three commas sub-dividing the constitutional text. Indeed, Davies? article points to differently punctuated versions of the amendment that were circulated and ratified by the various states.

The proper parsing and punctuation of the amendment could be an important feature of the March 18 U.S. Supreme Court oral argument in District of Columbia v. Heller. In advance of the argument in this landmark gun control case, Davies asks: ?Does the Court have, for example, the power to say a three-comma version of the Second Amendment is part of the Constitution, and the no-comma, one-comma, and two-comma versions are not??

An abstract and a copy of Davies' article are accessible here.

Full post as published by Within the Scope on March 07, 2008 (boomark / email).