15 Case Summaries for ap gov't & Politics Contents
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| Decision The Supreme Court ruled, 5-4, in favor of McDonald. Justice Alito announced the judgment and opinion of the Court. Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Scalia and Kennedy joined Justice Alito’s opinion in full, and Justice Thomas joined only in part. Justices Stevens, Breyer, Ginsburg, and Sotomayor dissented. Majority Writing fora majority of the Court, Justice Alito concluded that the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms for the purpose of self-defense is fully applicable to the states under the 14 th Amendment. The Court considered whether the right to keep guns is fundamental to our scheme of ordered liberty and system of justice Relying on a variety of historical records, the Court determined that both the Framers and those who ratified the 14 th Amendment considered the right to keep and bear arms among the fundamental rights necessary to our system of ordered liberty They said that self-defense is a basic right, and that, under Heller, individual self-defense is the central component of the Second Amendment right to bear arms. Four of the five justices in the majority also said that applying the Second Amendment against state and local governments does not imperil every law regulating firearms Echoing the Heller decision, the plurality suggested that reasonable gun restrictions—such as a ban on felons owning guns or on carrying guns on school property—would still be allowed. Since there was not a majority for that part of the opinion, however, it is not the law. McDonald v. City of Chicago (2010) © 2018 Street Law, Inc. 39 Dissents Justices Stevens and Breyer each wrote lengthy dissenting opinions. Justice Stevens argued that the Second Amendment was adopted to protect the states from federal encroachment and that, therefore, it made no sense to apply that provision against state and local governments. Justice Breyer, joined by Justices Ginsburg and Sotomayor, argued that the Second Amendment should not be incorporated against the states under the 14 th Amendment. He asserted that nothing in the Second Amendment’s text, history, or underlying rationale made it fundamental and protective of the keeping and bearing of arms for private self-defense. Justice Breyer criticized the Court for transferring the regulation of private firearm use away from democratically elected legislatures and states to the courts and the federal government. Impact McDonald v. Chicago struck down Chicago’s handgun ban and held that the Second Amendment right to keep guns for the purposes of self-defense is incorporated against the states. It expanded the ruling of Heller to apply to all state governments, not just the District of Columbia and the federal government. This means that all gun laws, including state and federal laws, must adhere to the Second Amendment in order to be constitutional. However, the Court did not use McDonald to strike down every state and federal law relating to the possession of guns. Although Justice Alito wrote in his opinion that the ruling in McDonald does not imperil every law regulating firearms the Court did not answer the question of which kinds of regulations would be permissible under the Second Amendment. Following McDonald, guns rights advocates filed lawsuits across the country, arguing that state gun laws were either wholly or in part unconstitutional. Courts are still determining what restrictions on gun ownership are constitutional under the Second Amendment and the Supreme Court’s ruling in McDonald. Since it was decided in 2010, the Court has heard very few cases relating to gun rights. Street Law Case Summary © 2018 Street Law, Inc. Last updated 08/23/2021 Download 0.6 Mb. Share with your friends:
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