District of Columbia v. Heller

District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008), is a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court.

The District of Columbia banned handgun possession and required rifles and shotguns to be kept unloaded and disassembled or locked. Dick Heller, a D.C. police officer, applied for registration of a handgun to keep at home and was denied. He challenged the law as violating the Second Amendment, which the lower courts had interpreted as protecting only a collective right tied to militia service.

Significance

Justice Scalia’s 5-4 opinion held that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms for self-defense, unconnected to militia service. The Court conducted an extensive textual and historical analysis, concluding that the operative clause (’the right of the people to keep and bear arms’) is not limited by the prefatory clause (‘a well regulated militia’). The D.C. handgun ban and trigger-lock requirement were struck down. Heller was the first Supreme Court case to recognize an individual Second Amendment right and was incorporated against the states in McDonald v. Chicago (2010).

Category

US Federal Case Law