Court opinion · 2010

McDonald v. City of Chicago

In a 5–4 decision, the Court held that the Second Amendment right recognized in Heller applies fully to state and local governments through the Fourteenth Amendment, reversing a ruling that had upheld handgun bans in Chicago and the suburb of Oak Park. A four-justice plurality led by Justice Samuel Alito found the right incorporated through the Due Process Clause, while Justice Clarence Thomas, supplying the fifth vote, relied on the Privileges or Immunities Clause.

“Applying the standard that is well established in our case law, we hold that the Second Amendment right is fully applicable to the States.”

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. (lead opinion), June 28, 2010

Why it matters

The decision extended the individual right to keep and bear arms to state and local laws, and its historical account drew on Reconstruction, when Congress acted to protect freed people’s right to keep arms for self-defense.

Read the full text at law.cornell.edu

Primary Source

The original record, reproduced or linked from the institution that holds it. Primary sources show what people said and did in their own words.

Subjects

second amendment supreme court fourteenth amendment federalism

From the library

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