Second Amendment - Harvard Law Review

Article III Notes

Historical Absence and Constitutional Interpretation

Vol. 139 No. 8 June 2026 Originalism — a school of constitutional interpretation defined by the pursuit of the Constitution’s original meaning — has long been celebrated and criticized for its forceful prescriptions for...

Second Amendment Blog Essay

The Second Amendment’s Liberal Moment

May 27, 2026 The Second Amendment was designed to protect the people and the states from a tyrannical and unrepresentative central government. Excavating this history today is...

Fabrice Guyot-Sionnest

Constitutional Law Recent Case

People v. Thompson

Vol. 139 No. 4 February 2026 The Supreme Court has long declared itself “supreme in the exposition of the law of the Constitution.” But that does not leave the state...

Constitutional Law Recent Case

United States v. Duarte

Vol. 139 No. 3 January 2026 After New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen, § 922(g) challenges proliferate. Enacted as the “centerpiece” of the Gun Control Act of 1968,...

Preemption Blog Essay

(As-)Applying PLCAA’s Predicate Exception After National Shooting Sports Foundation, Inc. v. James

November 24, 2025 Despite the pervasiveness of gun violence in the United States, legal constraints have hindered the ability of state governments to address it. Direct state...

Second Amendment Leading Case

Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc. v. Estados Unidos Mexicanos

Vol. 139 No. 1 November 2025 Corporate actors are not incentivized to mitigate externalized harms if the harm-causing activity is profitable. Tort law provides a means of changing those incentives...

Originalism Recent Case

Lara v. Commissioner Pennsylvania State Police

Vol. 138 No. 8 June 2025 If a constitutional amendment were written today, one might assume an originalist would interpret it according to its meaning today. If that originalist were...

Constitutional Law Response

Constructing Constitutional Rights

Response to Determining Rights

Vol. 138 No. 7 May 2025 In his important article, Determining Rights, Professor Jud Campbell correctly observes that “[t]wo central problems in rights jurisprudence are figuring out who should make” “specifications” about what a right “demands in particular situations” and “how to make them.”

Stephanie Hall Barclay

Second Amendment Recent Case

Bianchi v. Brown

En Banc Fourth Circuit Upholds Maryland Assault Weapons Ban Under Bruen’s “Text and History” Test.

Vol. 138 No. 4 February 2025

Second Amendment Leading Case

United States v. Rahimi

Vol. 138 No. 1 November 2024 More than fifteen years after the Supreme Court’s decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, “the right of the people to keep and bear...