Constitutional Law

Commas in the Second Amendment

An interesting paper over at GMU's The Green Bag.

It points out that even at the time of the ratification, there were versions with one, two, and three commas, and that since Congress, the Executive, and the Supreme Court have varied in their usage. The bottom line is that there were no photocopy machines back then, and scribes who hand copied documents punctuated and capitalized as they thought best.

[Note that The Green Bag is a lighthearted legal publication: the ending suggestion that we settle the issue by picking the version we want and re-ratifying it is not meant to be taken seriously]

Hat tip to Dan Gifford...

Full post as published by Of Arms and the Law on June 17, 2008 (boomark / email).