Second Amendment Archives - Page 23 of 28 - American Constitutional Rights Union

Ken Klukowski: Red-state Dems should save themselves, oppose Kagan

By ACRU Staff|2020-04-23T21:54:04-04:00July 20th, 2010|

ACRU Senior Legal Analyst Ken Klukowski wrote this column appearing on WashingtonExaminer.com on July 5, 2010.

There remain three big issues weighing against Solicitor-General Elena Kagan’s confirmation to the Supreme Court. Given these three factors, Democratic senators in red states would do themselves a favor by voting against her.

During her hearings, Kagan showed herself to be friendly, engaging and intelligent. But while some issues seem to be receding to the background, she failed to dispel concerns on three constitutional issues that will doubtless come before the Court many times, on which Kagan is on the wrong side of the American people.

First, the […]

Ken Klukowski: The Supreme Court, Elena Kagan, and Guns

By ACRU Staff|2020-04-23T21:54:04-04:00June 30th, 2010|

ACRU Senior Legal Analyst Ken Klukowski wrote this column appearing on BigGovernment.com on June 30, 2010.

This week’s historic Supreme Court case on gun rights has pivotal implications for Elena Kagan’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings. From now on, the biggest battles over the Second Amendment will be won or lost in the Supreme Court.

In the 2008 case DC v. Heller, the Supreme Court held 5-4 that the Second Amendment secures an individual right to own a gun. But because the Bill of Rights only applies directly to federal laws (such as those in DC), Heller only made the Second Amendment a right against […]

Ken Klukowski: The Gun Rights Decision in McDonald v. Chicago

By ACRU Staff|2020-04-23T21:54:04-04:00June 29th, 2010|

ACRU Senior Legal Analyst Ken Klukowski wrote this column appearing on Townhall.com on June 29, 2010.

On June 28, the Supreme Court handed down the most consequential decision of this term in the historic gun-rights case, McDonald v. Chicago. Now the Second Amendment right to own a gun extends against every level of government, in a complex 5-4 decision that shows President Obama is using the Supreme Court to push a gun-control agenda.

After the 2008 Heller case holding that the Second Amendment secures an individual right, the biggest question for anyone working in constitutional law was simple: Does the Second Amendment provide a right […]

Ken Klukowski: Elena Kagan's Opposition to Gun Rights

By ACRU Staff|2020-04-23T21:54:04-04:00May 14th, 2010|

ACRU Senior Legal Analyst Ken Klukowski wrote this column appearing on Townhall.com on May 13, 2010.

A third instance of Elena Kagan opposing Americans’ Second Amendment right to own a gun has now become public, and is sure to become a major issue in her Supreme Court confirmation hearings. And it confirms that President Obama’s gun-control agenda is to create a Supreme Court that will “reinterpret” the Second Amendment until that amendment means nothing at all.

This year, no case on the Supreme Court docket is more important than McDonald v. Chicago, where the Court is deciding whether the Second Amendment […]

Ken Klukowski: McDonald Gun-Rights Case: Round One Goes to the NRA

By ACRU Staff|2020-04-23T21:57:15-04:00January 25th, 2010|

There is growing tension between the pro-gun parties to the upcoming Supreme Court gun-rights case. Perhaps concerned about the direction this case was going, the Court has taken the unusual step of granting the NRA's motion to be given separate time to speak during oral arguments. Round One in this historic fight for the right to bear arms goes to the NRA.

Ken Klukowski: High Court Rejects Challenge to NRA's Signature Law

By ACRU Staff|2020-04-23T21:54:05-04:00December 20th, 2009|

In 2005, the National Rifle Association of America enacted a law that probably saved the American gun-making industry from bankruptcy. And just this last week, the Supreme Court rejected a constitutional challenge to this landmark legislation, ensuring this law stays on the books to preserve America's culture of lawful firearm ownership.

McDonald v. City of Chicago

By ACRU Staff|2020-04-23T21:54:06-04:00December 3rd, 2009|

The case McDonald v. City of Chicago presents to the Supreme Court the issue of whether the Second Amendment right to bear arms is applicable to state and local governments, or instead is only a right that Americans have against the actions of the federal government. Specifically, the question is whether the right to bear arms applies (or is “incorporated”) to the states through either the Privileges or Immunities Clause or the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

On November 23, the ACRU, joined by three other organizations, argued that the Second Amendment should be incorporated to the states through the Privileges or Immunities Clause, […]

Ken Blackwell and Ken Klukowski: Sotomayor, Civil Rights, and Guns

By ACRU Staff|2020-04-23T21:54:07-04:00July 15th, 2009|

Over the next two weeks, one of the critical issues will be your civil rights on guns. Senators could benefit from context to understand the importance of this civil right to protect families, especially racial minorities. Given Judge Sotomayor's long record, her confirmation must be more than "transparent," it must be penetrating and the Senators must dig deep.

NRA v. City of Chicago and Village of Oak Park

By ACRU Staff|2020-04-23T21:54:07-04:00July 8th, 2009|

Last year’s watershed Second Amendment case of District of Columbia v. Heller was just the beginning of the fight over the meaning of the right to keep and bear arms. The most significant question now is whether the Second Amendment only applies to the federal government (because D.C. is directly under federal law) or whether it also applies to states and cities under the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution. This question of whether the Second Amendment is “incorporated” by the Fourteenth Amendment is now being offered to the Supreme Court. The city of Chicago has a law banning handguns similar to the law struck down last year […]

Jan LaRue: Sotomayor's 'Fundamental' Flaws

By ACRU Staff|2020-04-23T21:53:48-04:00June 17th, 2009|

Supporters of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor claim that her Second Amendment rulings are examples of "judicial restraint." The problem is that she's restraining the Second Amendment.