Class dates: Thursday, March 26, April 16, 23, 30, May 7 (5 weeks)
Class time: 3:00 pm to 4:30 pm
Location: Assumption, Kennedy 119
This course will address the evolving interpretation of the Second Amendment in the wake of recent Supreme Court decisions, and the implications for various gun control initiatives at the state and federal levels. The Second Amendment establishes “a right to bear arms,” but in the context of safeguarding “well regulated militias.” In District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), the Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment was not limited to protecting militias but establishes a broad individual right to own guns. For over a decade, lower federal courts applied a balancing test which weighed the interest of the government in preserving public safety against the individual core Second Amendment right. However, in 2022, the Court adopted a rigid originalist and historical approach to the Second Amendment which has created uncertainty and threatened many longstanding gun control provisions. In 2024, the Court applied its originalist approach more flexibly in upholding a federal law restricting gun ownership in the context of domestic violence restraining orders, and will decide two major Second Amendment cases this term. This course will review the controversial topic of gun control, but the major focus will be on how evolving interpretations of the Second Amendment have shaped, and will continue to shape, the debate.
Recommended Reading : The Second Amendment: A Biography by Michael Waldman (Simon & Schuster 2014) 2 nd Ed Optional Reading : The Gun Debate: What Everyone Needs to Know by Phillip J. Cook and Kristin A. Goss (Oxford University Press 2014)
Instructor: John S. Ross, III (Jack) earned an A.B. degree (History) from Yale University, a J.D. degree from the University of Virginia School of Law, and an LL.M. degree (Taxation) from New York University School of Law. He practiced law in Washington D.C. for twenty years and served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Washington and Lee University School of Law. Jack has taught numerous courses in the WISE program focused on constitutional law and the Supreme Court, and facilitates the WISE Supreme Court SIG.
