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Sunday November 22, 2009 Events Calendar Archive |
Professor Merkel to Lecture on the Second Amendment Right to Bear Arms
The Supreme Court, the States, and the Right to Arms: William G. Merkel, a visiting professor at the University of North Dakota School of Law, will present a lecture titled, The Supreme Court, the States, and the Right to Arms: Placing McDonald v. Chicago in Historical Context. The lecture is on November 19, at 12:15 p.m. in the Baker Courtroom at the School of Law. The lecture is free and open to the public. Continuing legal education credit has been applied for in North Dakota. In its landmark District of Columbia v. Heller decision in 2008, the Supreme Court for the first time recognized a constitutional right to weapons possession unrelated to service in the lawfully established militia, holding key provisions of the most stringent handgun control laws in the country unconstitutional under the Second Amendment. That case dealt only with weapons restrictions enacted by the federal government or by the government of the District of Columbia. This coming spring, in McDonald v. Chicago and NRA v. Chicago, the Supreme Court will reconsider the Second Amendment as it decides whether to apply the right to arms against the states. Professor Merkel will discuss the constitutional principles that will guide the Court in deciding the cases. Professor Merkel, an associate professor of law at Washburn University who is visiting this semester at UND School of Law, is the author, with the late Richard Uviller, of The Militia and the Right to Arms, Or, How the Second Amendment Fell Silent (Duke University Press, 2002). |
