Maryland Law Review
Volume 68, Issue 4
District Of Columbia v. Heller: Failing to Establish a Standard for the Future
By Lindsay Goldberg [Full Text]
In District of Columbia v. Heller, the Supreme Court of the United States considered whether the District of Columbia violated the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution by prohibiting residents from possessing usable handguns in their homes. The Court held that the ban on handgun possession and the prohibition on operable firearm possession in the home violated the Second Amendment. In so holding, the Court failed to specify strict scrutiny as the appropriate standard of review for regulations challenged under the Second Amendment and failed to effectively respond to Justice Breyer’s interest-balancing approach. Had the Court properly applied a strict scrutiny standard to the statutes at hand, it likely could have reached the same outcome and eliminated much of the uncertainty that resulted from both the majority and dissenting opinions.
Citation: Lindsay Goldberg, Note, District Of Columbia v. Heller: Failing to Establish a Standard for the Future, 68 Md. L. Rev. 889 (2009).
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