Amendment+2+(4)

Home

Period 4

=__Court Cases__=

//United States v. Cruikshank (1876)// This was the first ever Supreme Court case in American history that solely addressed the 2nd Amendment. In April 1873 a large democrat militia called the “White league” raided a government building being protected by several-armed Republican ex slave state militiamen. This conflict was started over the disputed results of the election of a Republican governor whom was seen as “pro-black”. The results of this confrontation left anywhere between 150-200 dead African Americans with only three whites killed. This has been historically referred to as the Colfax Massacre. When the leaders of this massacre were taken to court they were charged with infringing upon the black militiamen’s 2nd Amendment right for not allowing them to take up arms in the state militia. The charge of murder was avoided based on the fact the state militiamen had in fact been armed. Once the appeal made it up to the Supreme Court the ruling was surprisingly in favor of the Defendants. The reasoning was that the 2nd Amendment only guaranteed that citizens’ rights would not be encroached upon by the government, not by one citizen against another. In other word the constitution only pertains to the government, therefore this case was not fit for federal court but for criminal court. This ruling made clear the line between civilian rights given to a citizen by the state and federal rights passed down through the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

//Bell v. Maryland (1964)//

=
The Supreme Court case // [|BELL v. MARYLAND] (1964)//, addresses the issue of how some men of the African-American race were allegedly found rebelling against criminal trespassing laws in the state of Maryland. It is found in one of the footnotes to this case that blacks are not allowed to bear arms. There have definitely been some changes to this decision since then. Today, blacks are legally allowed to bear arms, just as any other man. ======

//United States v. Lopez (1995)// The Supreme Court case [|U.S. v. LOPEZ] (1995), addresses a situation where a student brought a gun and bullets to school. He was found guilty for violating the Gun-Free School Zone Act (1990). It was believed that, according to the Commerce Clause, Congress did not have the right/power to intervene and charge this student guilty. And that is exactly how the Supreme Court voted. 5-4 voted that it was crossing the line for Congress to get involved. Because of this, it is more prevalent for States to be aware of gun safety and what is going on at schools when it comes to weapons.

Heller v. District of Columbia (2008) In the Supreme Court case Heller v. District of Columbia, it was decided that functional handguns should no longer be banned within the city limits. This case was brought up because Heller, a special Policeman applied for a permit to keep a handgun in his home for self defense purposes and was denied. The suit was filed based on the second amendment right to bear arms. Heller said that it was unconstitutional for the District of Columbia to say that all registered handguns must be kept nonfunctional even when they are intended for self defense purposes only. The case resulted in the city issuing Heller a license to carry his handgun in the home. Because of this case, many other cities that have put strict handgun regulations into effect allow people to possess functional handguns in their home for the purpose of self defense.

McDonald v. Chicago (2009) In the Supreme Court case McDonald v. Chicago (2009), the plaintiffs argued that the Second Amendment should apply to the states. The question that was being asked of the court was if the Second Amendment should apply to the states because it is incorporated by Fourteenth Amendment’s Privileges and Immunities clauses. The case resulted in a 5-4 vote in favor of McDonald, reversing the previous ruling. Because of this outcome, the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms for the purpose self defense does apply to the states.