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A Novel Interpretation of the Second Amendment

By Christine Corcos

The late Peter B. Junger, long a professor at Case Western Reserve Law School, offered this unusual interpretation of the Second Amendment. Here is the abstract of "The Original Plain Meaning of the Right to Bear Arms," as Case Legal Research Studies Paper 08-01.

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.

Download the entire paper from SSRN here.

Full post as published by Law & Humanities Blog on January 31, 2008 (boomark / email).