Since Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas made crystal clear in his ruling in New York Pistol and Rifle v. Bruen that the Second Amendment is not a second-class civil right, the question becomes: how far does this decision go? After consulting several gun and constitutional lawyers, here’s the short answer: very far. Read on.
…
Constitutional law attorney Mike Davis, head of the Article III Project, told the Adult in the Room Podcast that from now on these kinds of limitations on guns will be required to be measured by “strict scrutiny.”
“The state has the heavy burden now of determining we’re a felon, unworthy, that we have a dangerous mental illness that puts the community in danger,” he said. “Governments can still regulate guns just like they can regulate speech but it’s going to be with a more exacting standard, strict scrutiny.” And he said, so are the laws about magazine sizes, semi-automatic limits, and bans.
…
Referring to two previous gun cases, Justice Thomas wrote that “since Heller and McDonald, the Courts of Appeals have developed a “two-step” framework for analyzing Second Amendment challenges that combines history with means-end scrutiny. The Court rejects that two-part approach as having one step too many. Step one is broadly consistent with Heller, which demands a test rooted in the Second Amendment’s text, as informed by history. But Heller and McDonald do not support a second step that applies means-end scrutiny in the Second Amendment context.”
Read full article HERE.