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To Trust the People with Arms
In 2007, for the first time in nearly seventy years, the Supreme
Court decided to hear a case involving the Second Amendment. The
resulting decision in District of Columbia v. Heller
(2008) was the first time the Court declared a firearms restriction
to be unconstitutional on the basis of the Second Amendment. It was
followed two years later by a similar decision in McDonald v.
City of Chicago , and in 2022, the Court further expanded its
support for Second Amendment rights in New York State Rifle and
Pistol Association v. Bruen -a decision whose far-reaching
implications are still being unraveled. To Trust the People
with Arms explores the remarkable and complex legal history of
how the right to bear arms was widely accepted during the nation's
founding, was near extinction in the late twentieth century, and is
now experiencing a rebirth in the Supreme Court in the twenty-first
century.
Robert J. Cottrol and Brannon P. Denning link the right to bear
arms with other major themes in American history. Prompted by the
eighteenth-century belief that arms played a vital role in
preserving the liberties of the citizen, the Second Amendment met
many challenges in the nation's history. Among the most acute of
these were racism, racial violence, and the extension of the right
to bear arms to African Americans and other marginalized groups.
The development of modern firearms and twentieth-century
urbanization also challenged traditional notions concerning the
value of an armed population. Cottrol and Denning make a
particularly important contribution linking the nation's
participation in the wars of the twentieth century and the
strengthening of American gun culture. Most of all, they give a
nuanced and sophisticated legal history that engages legal realism,
different varieties of originalism, and the role of chance and
accident in history. To Trust the People with Arms
integrates history, politics, and law in an interdisciplinary way
to illustrate the roles that guns and the right to keep and bear
arms have played in American history, culture, and law.
eBook
IL LAVORO COME DOVERE
The essay suggests a unitary reconstruction of the concept of labour included into the Italian Constitution and marks the political value conferred to it by the Constitution itself. The duty to work as stated in article 4 of the Italian Constitution is analyzed in the light of the general discussion on constitutional duties. In this perspective, the essay offers a magis ut valeat interpretation of the article 4 of the Constitution. Special attention is given to the duty of work intended as a limit to the enjoyment of rights and to the cases in which from that duty derives a clear legal obligation.
Journal Article
Two concepts of constitutional legitimacy
What legitimates constitutions? One standard answer is that constitutions are legitimate only if they represent the people they govern. This article identifies two different conceptions of representation. Representation can be grounded either in the consent or the will of the citizens or when the constitution reflects the ‘real’ identity of the members of the nation. Alternatively, it is sometimes stated that the constitution is legitimate because it promotes justice or, more generally, is grounded in reason. While constitutions are typically grounded both in claims to represent the people and in claims concerning the justness and wisdom of the constitutional provisions, we establish that there are two types of constitutions: constitutions that are primarily representational (e.g. the US Constitution) and constitutions that are primarily reason-based (e.g. the German Constitution). We also show that this distinction has important ramifications for how constitutions are drafted and ratified, and how they operate. One central implication is that the legitimacy of constitutions that make weak claims to representation – for example, constitutions that are imposed by foreign powers – can still be defended on reason-based grounds.
Journal Article
What are stars made of?
\"The night sky is a place of wonder for all young readers. Stars are of particular fascination, especially once they learn that the sun is a star! In this book, learners explore the gases and life cycle of a star. Incredible, colorful photographs straight from NASA's telescopes and probes bring each spread to life. Thought-provoking text answers the title's question with easy, accessible language while still igniting interest. This book is right at home in any collection!\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
How not to write a constitution: lessons from Chile
On September 4, 2022, Chilean voters massively turned down a constitutional proposal that responded to widely shared criticisms of the 1980 constitution and emerged from a consensual and participatory process. This result is paradoxical because ex ante, the odds seemed largely in favor of changing the status quo. We argue that three factors, which derived from the interaction between rules and political contingency, explain the outcome: a Convention under the control of party-less independents, the exceptional underrepresentation of the political right, and a highly decentralized and public writing process. We extract some lessons from the failed experience that can be useful for countries seeking to deepen democratization through constitutional change and for a future constitution-making process in Chile.
Journal Article
THE DEMOCRACY PRINCIPLE IN STATE CONSTITUTIONS
In recent years, antidemocratic behavior has rippled across the nation. Lameduck state legislatures have stripped popularly elected governors of their powers; extreme partisan gerrymanders have warped representative institutions; state officials have nullified popularly adopted initiatives. The federal Constitution offers few resources to address these problems, and ballot-box solutions cannot work when antidemocratic actions undermine elections themselves. Commentators increasingly decry the rule of the many by the few. This Article argues that a vital response has been neglected. State constitutions embody a deep commitment to democracy. Unlike the federal Constitution, they were drafted—and have been repeatedly rewritten and amended—to empower popular majorities. In text, history, and structure alike, they express a commitment to popular sovereignty, majority rule, and political equality. We shorthand this commitment the democracy principle and describe its development and current potential. The Article's aims are both theoretical and practical. At the level of theory, we offer a new view of American constitutionalism, one in which the majoritarian commitment of states' founding documents complements the antimajoritarian tilt of the national document. Such complementarity is an unspoken premise of the familiar claim that the federal Constitution may temper excesses and abuses of state majoritarianism. We focus on the other half of the equation: state constitutions may ameliorate national democratic shortcomings. At the level of practice, we show how the democracy principle can inform a number of contemporary conflicts. Reimagining recent cases concerning electoral interference, political entrenchment, and more, we argue that it is time to reclaim the state constitutional commitment to democracy.
Journal Article