Bill of Rights: Second Amendment

COURT CASES



McDonald vs. City of Chicago (2009)

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-Problem:If 2nd Amendment applies to states with the 14 amendments benefits or Due Process clauses
-6-28-10:Supreme Court reverses the 7th circuit to fix conflict between Chicago's gun restrictions and the 2nd amendment
-Brief filed for petitions to rule that the 2nd amendment does apply to the states
        -signed by 58 Senators and 251 Representatives
        -32 states also filed brief
-Decision: Concluded that the Due Proccess of Law also includes the 2nd Amendment in the 14th Amendment



District of Columbia vs. Heller (2008)

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-District of Columbia law banned handgun possession
        >Crime to carry unregistered firearms
-Police Chief can give 1 year license
        >Legal firearms must be dissembled or bound by a trigger lock
-Heller, a special DC police, tried to register a gun to keep at home, but District refused
-Filed suit, but District Court dismissed the suit-DC Circuit reversed suit.
        >violated 2nd Amendment
-District must give Heller a license


United States vs. Cruikshank (1876)

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-1st court case in which the Supreme Court got to interpret the Second Amendment
-Conspiracy by Klansmen to prevent blacks from having civil rights such as bearing arms
-Blacks in the South weren't protected very well by the state's governments
-Case enabled political parties to use paramilitary forces