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- In my opinion, this is an example of Judicial Activism because the court ruled that an existing law violated the Second Amendment and called for a change to the law.

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- In his dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens wrote that the Second Amendment does not create an unlimited right to possess guns for self-defense purposes. Instead, the most natural reading of the the Amendment is that it protects the right to keep and bear arms for certain military purposes but does not curtail the legislature’s power to regulate nonmilitary use and ownership of weapons.
- No concurring opinion found

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- Justice Antonin Scalia delivered the opinion for the 5-4 majority.
- The ban on registering handguns and the requirement to keep guns in the home disassembled or nonfunctional with a trigger lock mechanism violate the Second Amendment.
- The Court held that the first clause of the Second Amendment that references a “militia” is a prefatory clause that does not limit the operative clause of the Amendment.

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- This ruling made the provisions of the District of Columbia code that restrict the licensing of handguns and require licensed firearms kept in the home to be kept nonfunctional unconstitutional. - Even though this impacts a small number of people the way that this court ruled in favor of changing this law could sway decisions elsewhere.

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- Do the provisions of the District of Columbia Code that restrict the licensing of handguns and require licensed firearms kept in the home to be kept nonfunctional violate the Second Amendment?

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- Mr. Chief Justice, and may it please the Court: The Second Amendment to the Constitution, as its text indicates, guarantees an individual right that does not depend on eligibility for or service in the militia.

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Dellinger's Oral Argument (The District's side)

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Dellinger's Oral Argument (The District's side)

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"In the debates over the Second Amendment, every person who used the phrase "bear arms" used it to refer to the use of arms in connection with militia service and when Madison introduced the amendment in the first Congress, he exactly equated the phrase "bearing arms" with, quote, "rendering military service"."

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- The District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed the complaint on March 31, 2004.
- On appeal, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit reversed the dismissal in a 2–1 decision. The Court of Appeals struck down provisions of the Firearms Control Regulations Act as unconstitutional.

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- Dick Anthony Heller was a D.C. special police officer who was authorized to carry a handgun while on duty. He applied for a one-year license for a handgun he wished to keep at home, but his application was denied.

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- The Chief Justice for this case was John Roberts and the Associate Justices were John P Stevens, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, David Souter, Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Samuel Alito

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District of Columbia vs. Heller 2008 Supreme Court Case

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District of Columbia vs. Heller 2008 Supreme Court Case