District of Columbia v. Heller Case Brief
Case Facts: The District of Columbia Code prohibited carrying an unregistered firearm and banned the registration of handguns through its provisions. However, the provisions granted the chief of police the liberty to grant one-year licenses for handguns. Additionally, the Code required individuals owning legitimately registered firearms to keep them unloaded and disassembled or with locked trigger unless they were in business places or being utilized for legalized recreational activities.
A special police officer in Washington, D.C., Dick Anthony Heller, was permitted to carry a handgun while on duty. He applied for a one-year registration license from the city of Washington for a handgun he wanted to keep at home. Based on the provisions of the District of Columbia Code, Heller's application was rejected. Consequently, he sued the District of Columbia on the premise that the provisions of this Code violated the Second Amendment. Heller argued…...
The Second AmendmentThe Second Amendment was ratified in 1791 and is the Amendment to the US Constitution that protects the persons right to bear arms. Yet there have been numerous challenges to this Amendment, particularly since gun violence has increased in America in recent decades. Some believe the Amendment should be restricted or overturned, while others believe that the right to own and carry a gun is an inherent right in America that must be protected at all costs. This paper will discuss why the Second Amendment was added to the US Constitution and what the Supreme Court has had to say about it in important cases.The right to bear arms in the US was based upon common law in England, where it was held that the natural right to self-defense meant that one could bear arms. Sir Blackstones Commentaries laid the foundation for this system of natural rights and…...
mlaBibliography
2nd Amendment, US Constitution.
Blackstone, Sir William. Commentaries on the Laws of England. Accessed at https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/blackstone_bk1ch1.asp
Madison, James. Federalist No. 46. Accessed at https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed46.asp
" Still, a judge has ordered the State Board of Education "not to enforce the new law while a suit filed by the father of a public school student proceeds" (Keen, 2007). Barry Lynn of the group Americans United for Separation of Church and State said the judge realizes "...that there is no motive for a moment of silence except a religious one." The First Amendment comes into play here because it prohibits government from promoting religion.
TO: (Gun control): Recently the governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation that prevents the use of lead ammunition in California Condor - a severely endangered species - recovery zones. The law thus requires hunters of game like deer and coyote to use copper bullets, because when lead bullets kill a deer, for example, the hunter normally leaves the guts of the carcass on the ground, condors feed on those guts, and if they…...
mlaWorks Cited
Abrams, Jim. (2007). House Ok's right to protect sources: White House rips media shield bill.
Boston Globe. Associated Press report. Retrieved Nov. 15, 2007, at http://www.boston.com .
Environmental News Network. (2007). Schwarzenegger Approves Condor Protection Bill.
Retrieved Nov. 15, 2007, at http://www.enn.com/press_releases/2201/print .
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The reality is that most jurisdictions have, in effect, changed this requirement by designating specific courts as small claims courts, where disputes are not settled by juries. Moreover, even in federal-level litigation, the amount in controversy required for most suits means that many litigants lack standing to proceed in a federal court, much less have a jury trial. What this amendment demonstrates is that the process for amending the Constitution has failed to keep up with the changes that are warranted by that process. To work around the fact that the modern court system would grind to a halt if every person with a twenty dollar dispute were entitled to a jury trial, the Courts have interpreted this amendment to mean that people are entitled to a jury trial if they would have been entitled to one under the common law. However, that is clearly not adhering to the text…...
mlaReferences
Jack M. Balkin, the Constitution in the National Surveillance State, Minnesota Law Review
93:1 (2008), available at http://www.minnesotalawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Balkin_MLR.pdf
Allen Clifton, a Reality Many Americans Don't Want to Admit: Our Constitution is Outdated
and Broken, Forward Progressives, (Jul. 20, 2013), http://www.forwardprogressives.com/a-reality-many-americans-dont-want-to-admit-our-constitution-is-outdated-and-broken/
The freedom of speech has also come under attack, most recently when a reporter was jailed for refusing to expose her sources. The amendment mentions "free exercise" of the right to say what one wishes or print what one wishes; however, if a person was to publicly endorse the assassination of the President, that person would be quickly arrested and most likely thrown in jail, an act that stands in deep conflict with the idea of "free exercise."
The Second Amendment has also become the center of attention regarding a person's right to own firearms and issues related to gun control. The National Rifle Association (NRA) highly endorses the 2nd Amendment and goes to great lengths to lobby Congress for less restrictive measures related to owning specific kinds of firearms, such as machine guns, AK-47's and other high-powered weapons. With handguns, a good number of legal efforts in recent years have…...
2nd Amendment to U.S. Constitution
Laws regarding the use and safety of weapons in the United States date back to
1837, when Georgia's ban on handguns was ruled unconstitutional. Subsequent legislation has been scrutinized by courts -- including the High Court -- and in numerous cases the rulings have supported a citizens' right to keep and bear arms except in certain cases. In District of Columbia v. Heller, the last decision offered
by the Supreme Court in 2007, a law banning handguns was struck down based
on the Second Amendment. How this ruling will ultimately affect states and local governments remains to be seen, but this paper carefully reviews opinions from the majority and minority on the Court. This paper also presents what the Court considers enumerated rights and how the gun lobby might be impacted by the ruling -- as well as those advocating for gun safety. Scholarly, peer-reviewed articles and a thorough…...
It would also be highly recommended that there are designated buffer zones between the convention and any designated First Amendment Zones. Additionally, these zones must be away from any other public areas. If they are too close to public areas, like malls, they may inadvertently disrupt the flow of the public and endanger passersby.
There are also recommendations for general policy of the possible disruption of protest groups at the DNC event. If officers were to commence in disrupting the protest groups, it would be absolutely necessary to show they were acting in accordance with the misdemeanor violation of Section 870.02 in the 2002 Florida Statutes. Essentially, this would mean that officers would have to prove more than three individuals were acting in a way to disturb the peace, rather than to peacefully assemble. It is true, "no actual breach of peace needs to take place" (Unlawful Assembly Dispersal Order).…...
mlaReferences
Independent Review Panel. (2004). The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) Inquiry Report.
M6. (2013). "First Amendment Zones."
M6. (2013). "Unlawful assembly to commit a breach of the peace."
Limiting Constitutional Rights to Bear Arms
The capital issue in the hypothetical court case detailed within Application 1.2 is the boundaries for limitations on the personal right to bear arms. Those boundaries are unclear in this case, because the defendant is exercising his right to bear arms as denoted within the second amendment to the United States Constitution. However, this person (known as Lloyd) has stockpiled enough arms that his store is dangerous to others living around him, which is why they have sued Lloyd claiming that his actions under the second amendment violate their constitutional rights. Specifically, they are claim Lloyd is infringing their rights outlined in the fifth and ninth amendments to the constitution. The relevance of these amendments to this case is that the fifth amendment states no person should suffer the loss of their life or property, whereas the ninth mandates that rights granted in the Constitution…...
Second Reconstructions
One of the most dramatic consequences of the Civil ar and Reconstruction was that the South was effectively driven from national power for roughly six decades. Southerners no longer claimed the presidency, wielded much power on the Supreme Court, or made their influence strongly felt in Congress But beginning in the 1930s, the South was able to flex more and more political muscle, and by the 1970s some began to think that American politics and political culture were becoming 'southernized'.u How did this happen and what difference did it make to the development of the South and the United States?
Under segregation most blacks in the U.S. still lived in the South and were employed as sharecroppers, laborers and domestic servants, but the system of segregation and discrimination was also found everywhere in other sections of the country. Certainly virtually nothing was done for civil rights during the Progressive…...
mlaWORKS CITED
Brinkley, Allen. American History: A Survey, 14th Edition. McGraw-Hill, 2012.
Foner, Eric. Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War. Oxford University Press, 1995.
Foner, Eric. Forever Free: The Story of Emancipation and Reconstruction. NY: Knopf, 2005.
Gold, S.D. The Civil Rights Act of 1964. Marshall Cavendish, 2010.
Second mendment to the Constitution of the United States can often be as prevalent and potentially divisive as the First mendment, which covers freedom of speech, freedom of the press and the establishment caused which has come to justify the perceived separation of church and state. While there are practical and common-sense applications for gun ownership and rights, there are some weapons that probably shouldn't be in the hands of normal civilians and some people should not be allowed to own guns period due to things like felonious history, mental health issues and other similar conditions.
There has always been a butting of heads regarding what the Second mendment refers to and what it does not. To be precise, the ratified version of the Bill of Rights that was signed by Thomas Jefferson stated it "a well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the…...
mlaA map that shows where concealed carry is allowed and which states allow reciprocity with others.
Washburn, Michael. "Our Favorite Weapon." The New York Times. The New York Times, 28 Jan. 2012. Web. 9 May 2014. .
A profile of prolific gun maker Glock and their ubiquity in the United States gun culture and the homes of owners.
Fourth Amendment
It is a traditional belief in America that a man's home is his castle, meaning that he is lord and master of his home and no one may enter, not even the government, without his permission. This was such an important issue among the American colonists that it was included into the Constitution when they broke away from Great Britain. In short, the fourth amendment states that no private property could be searched or seized without a proper warrant; and a warrant could not be issued without due cause. Over time belief in this absolute principle has gradually softened and a number of exceptions to this rule have come into place. Police and other authorities have been given exceptions to this rule in certain circumstances and it is not uncommon for evidence, that was gathered without a warrant, to be accepted in a trial. This is the situation in…...
mlaReferences
"Fourth Amendment: Search and Seizure." U.S. Government Printing Office.
Retrieved from http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/GPO-CONAN-2002/pdf/GPO -
CONAN-2002-9-5.pdf
Georgia v. Randolph, 278 G. 614,604 S.E. 2d 835. (2006). Retrieved from http://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/04-1067/#writing-ZS
The privilege against self-incrimination originally came to pass through colonial history. It went against both the moral and physical compulsion of taking an oath to what was believed to be a vengeful God and having a pious soul. It also became a defensive weapon against society and the laws and proceedings that often took place, in that it allowed a person to insist that they did not have to and were not going to answer a particular question that was asked of them, and what was more, they did not have to answer the question because they were protected under the law.
Somewhere along the way, though, this protection that was designed for a very specific purpose began to be extended to other purposes, therefore 'watering down' the importance of the 5th amendment and making it into somewhat of a joke as opposed to a serious legal matter that can…...
mlaBibliography
Bart v. United States. 349 U.S. 219 (1954).
Counselman v. Hitchcock. 142 U.S. 547 (1891).
Emspak v. United States. 349 U.S. 190 (1954).
Mapp v. Ohio. 367 U.S. 643; 81 S. Ct. 1684; 6 L.Ed.2d 1081 (1961).
Many conservatives believe that the Anti-
Establishment Clause prohibits only the actual establishment of a national religion in the manner of the English Crown. To them, the right to freedom of religion is all that the First Amendment guarantees, not the right to be free from religion (Dershowitz, p. 202).
Luckily for those who consider themselves atheists and agnostics, the Supreme
Court has interpreted the First Amendment to include the separation of church and state much more broadly, because under the conservative interpretation, the government might, in principle, be able to require some religious affiliation of its citizens provided it did not specify any particular religious faith. That issue has arisen numerous times and in many different forms over the years, including whether or not public schools may require recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance with the words "under God" or "moments of private reflection" intended for prayer during school time.
Most recently,…...
mlaREFERENCES
Dershowitz, a.M. (2002) Shouting Fire: Civil Liberties in a Turbulent Age. New York: Little Brown.
Friedman, L.M. (2005) a History of American Law. New York: Touchstone. Haynes, C., Chaltain, S., Glisson (2006) First Freedoms: A Documentary History of First Amendment Rights in America. London: Oxford University Press
Fourth Amendment
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized" (Cornell University Law School. N.D.). As with a preponderance of Constitutional issues the meaning of the Fourth Amendment has undergone an evolvement from its original intent and purpose as set forth in its composition by the founders and inclusion in the Bill of Rights. "The framers of the Constitution adopted the amendment in response to the writ of assistance (a type of blanket search warrant) that was used during the American Revolution" (Reed, J. May 24, 2011.). The Supreme Court in its role as Constitutional explicator has addressed the scope and boundaries of the Fourth…...
mlaOlmstead v. U.S.
Analyzing the stated language of the Fourth Amendment there is not an explicit definition of what constitutes an unreasonable search and seizure; only a generalized guarantee of protection against government intrusion. Prior to the Olmstead case in 1928 the Court had not commented substantively into Fourth amendment matters, the exception being Weeks v. U.S. In which the "the exclusionary rule was born; the exclusionary rule forbids the use of illegally obtained evidence in a criminal trial" (Fourth Amendment summaries.com. N.D.). The Court in Olmstead looked to more specifically identify the precise meaning of the reasonableness of search and seizure by government authorities. The case which involved "wiretaps of the basement of Olmstead's building (where he maintained an office) and in the streets near his home" (Oyez.org. N.D.) led the Court to consider the question of whether "the use of evidence disclosed in wiretapped private telephone conversations, violate the recorded party's Fourth and Fifth Amendments?" (Oyez.org. N.D.).
The Court's decision upholding a lower court conviction of Olmstead on bootlegging charges must be placed in the context of the nation's prohibition of alcohol and the government's attempts to enforce the 18th Amendment. As such the Court's opinion reflects a need for officers to utilize means necessary to collect "evidence of a conspiracy to violate the Prohibition Act" (Cornell University Law School. N.D.). The majority opinion reads the Fourth Amendment narrowly across several key areas. First, the wiretapping of "the basement of a large office building and on public streets" (Cornell University Law School. N.D.) did not constitute "trespass upon any property of the defendants" (Cornell University Law School. N.D.). Here the Court articulates a standard that a search is reasonable provided it does not "refer to an actual physical examination of one's person, papers, tangible material effects, or home" (Oyez.org. N.D.). Because none of Olmstead's personal property had been intruded upon, no unreasonable search had been committed. Second, the Court reasoned that wiretapping did not constitute a search because the protection of "the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects" does not include the protection of "their conversations" (Oyez.org. N.D.). Lastly, "the wiretaps did not violate the Fourth Amendment because there had been no physical intrusion" (Law.JRank.org. N.D.) into areas which would be considered constitutionally protected. In identifying these markers, the Court's narrow constriction of the reading of the Fourth Amendment indicates the "interest of liberty will not justify enlarging
Jehovah's Witnesses are a good example of a religious entity that claims the right the First Amendment freedom of religion clauses. Jehovah's Witnesses may act as a thorn in many families across America, however, they have been the root cause of much of our freedom of religion laws. Jehovah's Witnesses brought many cases of religion to the court system in the 1930s and 1940s. Before then, the court system handled very few court cases regarding freedom of speech and freedom of religion. These cases formed the foundation of the First Amendment protection of all citizens.
The Court has attempted to create and implement a system for determining church and state decisions. This is accomplished with a three-part test for laws dealing with religious establishment. The determination if the law is constitutional is this: does it have a secular purpose? It should not advance or inhibit religion. Finally, it cannot foster an…...
Yes, there are several essay topics that can present opposing viewpoints on the issue of school shootings. Some possible topics include:
1. Gun control laws: Should stricter gun control laws be implemented to prevent school shootings, or does the right to bear arms outweigh the potential risks?
2. Mental health services: Should more resources be allocated to providing mental health services in schools to identify and address potential threats of school shootings, or is this an invasion of privacy and stigmatizing those with mental health issues?
3. School security measures: Should schools invest in increased security measures such as armed guards, metal detectors,....
Title: The Complex Issue of School Shootings: Examining Opposing Viewpoints
Introduction:
School shootings have become a prevalent and disturbing issue in our society, sparking intense debates and discussions among individuals, communities, and policymakers. This essay aims to present opposing viewpoints on this complex matter, exploring the arguments for and against various approaches to preventing and addressing school shootings.
Viewpoint 1: Stricter Gun Control and Mental Health Interventions
Advocates of stricter gun control measures argue that these policies can effectively reduce the number of school shootings by limiting access to firearms and ammunition. They emphasize the need for comprehensive background checks, waiting periods, and restrictions....
Outline for an Essay on Gun Control Laws
I. Introduction
A. Hook: Begin with a startling statistic or a thought-provoking question to grab the reader's attention.
B. Background: Provide a brief overview of the gun control debate in the United States, including the history and evolution of gun laws.
C. Thesis statement: Clearly state the main argument that will be supported in the essay, taking a stance on whether gun control laws should be strengthened or weakened.
II. Body Paragraph 1: Arguments for Gun Control Laws
A. Topic sentence: Present the first reason why gun control laws should be strengthened.
B. Supporting....
Topic 1: Capital Punishment
Opposing Viewpoints:
Proponents: Argue that capital punishment is a just and effective deterrent to crime, while also providing closure to victims' families.
Opponents: Question the morality of state-sanctioned killing, its potential for wrongful convictions, and its disproportionate impact on marginalized communities.
Topic 2: Universal Basic Income
Opposing Viewpoints:
Supporters: Advocate for a universal basic income as a guaranteed safety net that would reduce poverty, stimulate economic growth, and foster innovation.
Critics: Express concerns about the cost, the potential for disincentivizing work, and the inflationary impact on prices.
Topic 3: Abortion Rights
Opposing Viewpoints:
Pro-choice advocates: Argue for the right of women....
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