In a 5-4 decision released just minutes ago [PDF], the Supreme Court overturned the City of Chicago’s ban on handgun ownership, extending District of Columbia v. Heller‘s holding that the Second Amendment confers an individual right to bear arms. (Heller was limited to Congress’s right to regulate gun ownership; McDonald extends Heller to state and local governments.) At its core, therefore, McDonald is as much an incorporation case as a Second Amendment case. In a sense, this is an interesting decision for the Roberts Court, as incorporation is arguably at odds with originalism; the Roberts Court is popularly perceived as an originalist Court.
Second Amendemnt opponents take note: the Court has implied that it will allow certain “reasonable” restrictions on gun ownership short of an outright ban, though the extent of those restrictions is not clear.
This post was written by Jeffrey M. Nye.
