Second Amendment Will SCOTUS Resolve the Circuit Split on a Law That Disarms People With Nonviolent Criminal Records? Steven Duarte is one of several petitioners who are asking the justices to address the constitutionality of that absurdly broad gun ban. Jacob Sullum | 11.10.2025 4:45 PM
Second Amendment Trump, an Avowed Second Amendment Champion, Defends a Gun Ban With 'No Historical Justification' His administration is urging the Supreme Court to uphold a prosecution for violating a federal law that bars illegal drug users from owning firearms. Jacob Sullum | 10.29.2025 12:01 AM
Second Amendment SCOTUS Will Consider the Constitutionality of the Federal Ban on Gun Possession by Illegal Drug Users The law applies to millions of Americans who pose no plausible threat to public safety, including cannabis consumers in states that have legalized marijuana. Jacob Sullum | 10.20.2025 4:05 PM
Second Amendment The NRA Supports SCOTUS Petitioners Who Lost Their Gun Rights Because of Nonviolent Offenses The cases give the justices a chance to address a constitutionally dubious policy that disarms peaceful Americans. Jacob Sullum | 10.15.2025 12:01 AM
Second Amendment SCOTUS Will Consider a Challenge to Hawaii's Default Rule Against Guns on Private Property Open to the Public The law is one of several attempts to override the right to bear arms by making it impractical to exercise. Jacob Sullum | 10.3.2025 4:25 PM
Second Amendment The 9th Circuit Overturns a Man's Conviction for Holding a Shotgun on the Sidewalk in Front of His House The decision, which hinges on an exception to the Gun-Free School Zones Act, does not say whether that law is consistent with the Second Amendment. Jacob Sullum | 9.25.2025 1:55 PM
Second Amendment Florida's Ban on Openly Carrying Guns Is Unconstitutional, State Appeals Court Rules A unanimous three-judge panel concluded that "no historical tradition supports" the 1987 law. Jacob Sullum | 9.11.2025 1:10 PM
Second Amendment The Trump Administration's Half-Baked Plan To Disarm Transgender People Is Legally Bankrupt Such a gun ban is not authorized by statute or allowed by the Second Amendment. Jacob Sullum | 9.10.2025 12:01 AM
2nd Amendment Walz's Gun Plan Wouldn't Stop Shootings, but It Might Shred Civil Liberties Minnesota's proposed firearm restrictions raise serious constitutional questions—and offer little in return. Jacob R. Swartz | 9.5.2025 5:20 PM
Second Amendment The Proposed Ban on Gun Possession by Transgender People Would Be Neither Legal Nor Constitutional The Justice Department reportedly is considering a regulation aimed at disarming "mentally ill individuals suffering from gender dysphoria." Jacob Sullum | 9.4.2025 8:50 PM
Second Amendment The 10th Circuit Agrees That Prosecuting Cannabis Consumers for Gun Possession May Be Unconstitutional The appeals court rejected most of the arguments in favor of that policy, saying "the government must show non-intoxicated marijuana users pose a risk of future danger." Jacob Sullum | 8.28.2025 4:15 PM
Second Amendment The 11th Circuit Revives a Constitutional Challenge to the Federal Law That Disarms Medical Marijuana Patients The appeals court concluded that the government had failed to show that policy is consistent with "this Nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation." Jacob Sullum | 8.25.2025 8:00 AM
Second Amendment Hunter Biden Walks Free While This Iowa Man Serves 4 Years for the Same 'Crime' The contrast between the two cases illustrates the haphazard impact of an arbitrary, constitutionally dubious gun law. Jacob Sullum | 7.21.2025 3:10 PM
Second Amendment The Trump Administration Defends the Federal Ban on Interstate Handgun Sales In response to a Second Amendment lawsuit, the government says the restriction "serves legitimate objectives" and "only modestly burdens" the right to arms. Jacob Sullum | 7.16.2025 2:05 PM
Second Amendment The 9th Circuit Says California's One-Per-Month Limit on Gun Purchases Is Unconstitutional The appeals court concluded that the restriction impinges on the right to arms and is not consistent with the historical tradition of firearm regulation. Jacob Sullum | 6.23.2025 1:50 PM
Second Amendment 17 Years Ago, She Lost Her Gun Rights for Passing a Bad Check. She Wants SCOTUS To Rectify That Injustice. Melynda Vincent is asking the justices to decide whether it's constitutional to disarm people based on nothing more than a nonviolent criminal conviction. Jacob Sullum | 6.12.2025 3:00 PM
Second Amendment Colorado Will Soon Require a Discretionary Permit To Acquire Semiautomatic Rifles The state may have a hard time showing that its broad restrictions are consistent with the "historical tradition of firearm regulation." Jacob Sullum | 4.15.2025 4:30 PM
Second Amendment Mel Gibson Controversy Highlights a Bigger Scandal: Many Americans Lose Their Gun Rights for No Good Reason Millions of people are barred from owning firearms even though they have no history of violence, and they have essentially no recourse under current law. Jacob Sullum | 3.12.2025 4:30 PM
Second Amendment The 5th Circuit Says the Federal Ban on Handgun Sales to Young Adults Is Unconstitutional The government failed to persuade the appeals court that 18-to-20-year-olds are not part of "the people" or that the age restriction is consistent with the "historical tradition of firearm regulation." Jacob Sullum | 1.30.2025 5:15 PM
Second Amendment The Law That Disarmed Trump Is Unfair, Illogical, and Constitutionally Dubious The president-elect lost his Second Amendment rights thanks to a nonsensical gun ban. Jacob Sullum | 1.15.2025 12:01 AM
Second Amendment 5th Circuit Reaffirms That Prosecuting a Marijuana User for Illegal Gun Possession Was Unconstitutional Patrick Darnell Daniels Jr. was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for violating a federal law that bars drug users from owning firearms. Jacob Sullum | 1.7.2025 3:35 PM
Second Amendment He Was Convicted of a Felony for Holding a Gun on the Sidewalk in Front of His House Gabriel Metcalf argues that his prosecution under the Gun-Free School Zones Act violated his constitutional right to keep and bear arms. Jacob Sullum | 12.12.2024 4:20 PM
Second Amendment Federal Judge Enjoins Enforcement of the Illinois 'Assault Weapon' Ban U.S. District Judge Stephen McGlynn says the law bans firearms covered by the Second Amendment and is not supported by historical precedent. Jacob Sullum | 11.11.2024 1:40 PM
Second Amendment 9th Circuit Partly Upholds Injunctions Against Location-Specific Gun Bans in California and Hawaii The ruling says some restrictions on guns in "sensitive places" are constitutionally dubious but upholds several others. Jacob Sullum | 9.9.2024 4:30 PM
Second Amendment A Federal Judge Says Carry-Permit Holders Have a Right to Armed Self-Defense on Public Transit The ruling concludes that the government failed to show an Illinois ban is "consistent with this Nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation." Jacob Sullum | 9.4.2024 2:15 PM
Second Amendment 2 Contradictory Decisions on AR-15 Bans Reflect Clashing Views of Supreme Court Precedents Does the Second Amendment allow the government to ban guns in common use for lawful purposes? Jacob Sullum | 8.14.2024 12:01 AM
Second Amendment A Federal Judge Reluctantly Concludes That New Jersey's AR-15 Ban Is Unconstitutional The decision shows that the Supreme Court has forced judges who like gun control to respect the Second Amendment anyway. Jacob Sullum | 8.1.2024 3:55 PM
FBI He Faced a Terrorism Probe, Went to Jail on a Gun Charge, and Now Is Charged With Drug Possession Although the FBI never produced evidence that Ali Hemani was a threat to national security, it seems determined to imprison him by any means necessary. Amel Ahmed | 6.27.2024 8:00 AM
Second Amendment Has SCOTUS Replaced One Kind of Unbridled Discretion With Another in Second Amendment Cases? Although critics say the Court’s current approach is unworkable, it has been undeniably effective at defeating constitutionally dubious gun regulations. Jacob Sullum | 6.26.2024 12:01 AM
Second Amendment Hunter Biden's Gun Conviction Does Not Resolve a Constitutional Dispute That Pits Him Against His Father The president's son, who faces up to 25 years in prison for conduct that violated no one's rights, can still challenge his prosecution on Second Amendment grounds. Jacob Sullum | 6.11.2024 2:55 PM
Second Amendment Donald Trump and Hunter Biden Face the Illogical Consequences of an Arbitrary Gun Law Their cases illustrate the injustice of taking away people’s Second Amendment rights based on nonviolent crimes Jacob Sullum | 6.5.2024 12:01 AM
Second Amendment Trump's Conviction Requires Him To Surrender His Guns. Civil Libertarians Should Be Troubled. The former president's loss of his Second Amendment rights highlights an arbitrary restriction that applies to many people with no history of violence. Jacob Sullum | 6.2.2024 7:40 PM
Second Amendment In Hawaii, Permission To Use Medical Marijuana Precludes Permission To Own a Gun The state's gun permit policy underlines the absurdity of assuming that cannabis consumers are too dangerous to be trusted with firearms. Jacob Sullum | 5.27.2024 3:35 PM
Second Amendment Here Is Why a Federal Judge Rejected Hunter Biden's Second Amendment Challenge to His Gun Charges Likening drug users to people who are "mentally ill and dangerous," the ruling says barring them from owning firearms is not unconstitutional on its face. Jacob Sullum | 5.12.2024 7:30 PM
Gun Rights Colorado Legislators Ditch Plan To Ban Guns in Dozens of 'Sensitive Places' The amended bill applies only to schools, polling places, and certain government buildings. Jacob Sullum | 4.5.2024 4:15 PM
Second Amendment This Colorado Bill Would Abolish the Right to Armed Self-Defense in Many 'Sensitive Places' Legislators are taking a page from constitutionally dubious state laws that make carry permits highly impractical to use. Jacob Sullum | 3.25.2024 1:40 PM
Second Amendment Biden Decries Criminalization of Cannabis Consumers Even As He Insists They Have No Second Amendment Rights Hours before the president said "no one should be jailed" for marijuana use, his Justice Department was saying no one who uses marijuana should be allowed to own guns. Jacob Sullum | 3.20.2024 3:05 PM
Second Amendment California Violated the Second Amendment by Disarming People Based on Nullified Convictions A federal judge ruled that three men who committed nonviolent felonies decades ago are entitled to buy, own, and possess guns. Jacob Sullum | 3.1.2024 3:05 PM
Second Amendment Hawaii's Supreme Court Insists There Is No Individual Right to Arms Rejecting a challenge to the state's strict gun laws, the court is openly contemptuous of Second Amendment precedents. Jacob Sullum | 2.8.2024 3:45 PM
Second Amendment Based on Loose Reasoning, a Federal Judge Rejects a Challenge to the Gun-Free School Zones Act The decision likens the federal law to Reconstruction era restrictions on firearms near polling places. Jacob Sullum | 2.7.2024 12:01 AM
Second Amendment Gavin Newsom Defies the Supreme Court's 'Very Bad Ruling' on the Right To Bear Arms California made carry permits easier to obtain but nearly impossible to use. Jacob Sullum | 1.10.2024 12:01 AM
Second Amendment 9th Circuit Temporarily Restores the Right To Bear Arms As It Mulls California's New Gun-Free Zones The state's law, which a federal judge enjoined last month, prohibits firearms in most public places. Jacob Sullum | 1.8.2024 12:50 PM
Second Amendment California's 'Repugnant' Restrictions on Public Gun Possession Just Took Effect After a federal judge deemed the state's location-specific gun bans unconstitutional, the 9th Circuit stayed his injunction. Jacob Sullum | 1.1.2024 3:00 PM
Second Amendment 2nd Circuit Rejects New York's Default Rule Against Guns in Businesses The court upheld several other location-specific gun bans, along with the state's "good moral character" requirement for a carry permit. Jacob Sullum | 12.13.2023 2:35 PM
California California Defies SCOTUS by Imposing Myriad New Restrictions on Public Gun Possession By banning firearms from a long list of "sensitive places," the state is copying a policy that federal judges have repeatedly rejected. Jacob Sullum | 12.1.2023 3:05 PM
Second Amendment The 4th Circuit Says Maryland's Handgun Licensing Law Is Unconstitutional Before buying a handgun, residents had to obtain a "qualification license," which could take up to 30 days. Jacob Sullum | 11.22.2023 1:30 PM
Second Amendment He Lost His Gun Rights Because of a Misdemeanor DUI Conviction. That Was Unconstitutional, a Judge Says. The case highlights the broad reach of a federal law that bans firearm possession by people with nonviolent criminal records. Jacob Sullum | 11.15.2023 2:35 PM
Law & Government New Article: The General Law Right to Bear Arms with implications for the pending Supreme Court case of United States v. Rahimi Will Baude |The Volokh Conspiracy | 10.31.2023 8:17 AM
