Between Original Meaning and Social Mobilization: The Case of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
Keywords:
Second Amendment, gun rights, social movement, constitutional interpretation, originalism, popular constitutionalism, strategic litigationAbstract
In this paper I intend to explore the emergence of the right to kee´p and bear arms in the American legal system. Taking into consideration the origins of the Second Amendment to the US Constitution and the intentions behind its adoption, I argue that the fact that it is commonly read as a right of that nature does not obey a faithful interpretation of the original meaning of the constitutional text, but rather of decades of social mobilization that, in coordination with political actors, succeeded in reinterpreting its meaning.
Downloads
References
Ackerman, Bruce. We the People. Foundations. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1991.
Amar, Akhil R. “The Bill of Rights as a Constitution”. The Yale Law Journal 100, Nro. 5 (1991): pp. 1131-1210.
Amar, Akhil R. The Bill of Rights: Creation and Reconstruction. Yale University Press, 1998.
Anthony, Earl. Picking Up the Gun. A Report on the Black Panthers. Nueva York: The Dial Press, 1970.
Barnett, Randy E. Restoring the Lost Constitution. The Presumption of Liberty. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004.
Cover, Robert. “The Supreme Court, 1982 Term – Foreword: Nomos and Narrative”. Harvard Law Review 97 (1983): pp. 4-68.
Dawson, Jessica. “Shall Not Be Infringed: How the NRA Used Religious Language to Transform the Meaning of the Second Amendment”. Palgrave Communications 5, Nro. 58 (2019): pp. 1-13.
Foner, Philliph (ed.). The Black Panthers Speak. Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2014.
Hamilton, Alexander; Madison, James y Jay, John. The Federalist Papers. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
Kates, Don B. “Handgun Prohibition and the Original Meaning of the Second Amendment”. Michigan Law Review 82, Nro. 2 (1983): pp. 204-273.
Kramer, Larry D. Constitucionalismo popular y control de constitucionalidad. Buenos Aires: Marcial Pons, 2011.
Levinson, Sanford. “The Embarrassing Second Amendment”. The Yale Law Journal 99, Nro. 3 (1989): pp. 637-659.
Maier, Pauline. Ratification: the people debate the Constitution, 1787-1788. Nueva York: Simon & Shuster, 2010.
Musa, Sam. “The Impact of NRA on the American Policy”. Journal of Political Sciences & Public Affairs 4, Nro. 4 (2016).
Siegel, Reva. “The Jurisgenerative Role of Social Movements in United States Constitutional Law”. SELA Papers (2004).
Siegel, Reva. “Dead or Alive: Originalism as Popular Constitutionalism in Heller”. Harvard Law Review 122 (2008): pp. 191-245.
Siegel, Reva y Post, Robert. “Constitucionalismo popular, departamentalismo y supremacía judicial”. En Constitucionalismo democrático. Por una reconciliación entre Constitución y pueblo. Buenos Aires: Siglo XXI Editores, 2013.
Squires, Peter. Gun Culture or Gun Control? Firearms, Violence and Society. Routledge, 2000.
Tilly, Charles. “Social Movements as Historically Specific Clusters of Political Performances”. Berkeley Journal of Sociology 38 (1993): pp. 1-30.
Wilkinson III, J. Harvie. “Of Guns, Abortions, and the Unraveling Rule of Law”. Virginia Law Review 95, Nro. 2 (2009): pp. 253-323.
Williams, David C. The Mythic Meanings of the Second Amendment. Taming Political Violence in a Constitutional Republic. Londres: Yale University Press, 2003.
Winkler, Adam. Gunfight. The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America. Nueva York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2013.
Published
How to Cite
License
Copyright (c) 2021 Revista Jurídica de la Universidad de San Andrés
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
