BIRMINGHAM, AL – On Thursday, June 23, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment protects not only the right to keep arms but also the right to bear them. In a 6-3 opinion authored by Justice Clarence Thomas, the Court struck down a New York law that banned open carry and issued concealed-carry permits only when the applicant could demonstrate a special need greater than that of the average citizen for self-defense. 

The Alabama Center for Law and Liberty (“ACLL”), a nonprofit conservative law firm in Birmingham, Alabama, was one of the first to file a friend-of-the-court brief after the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. ACLL’s main point was that the Court should interpret the Second Amendment according to its text and the history surrounding its ratification, not according to judicial balancing tests. 

Justice Thomas’s opinion did exactly that. Before the Court released its opinion today, many lower courts had engaged in some form of trying to balance the interests of the state versus the interests of the individual in cases involving the right to carry. Today, the Court explicitly rejected that approach and looked to the text and history to conclude that the Second Amendment protects the right to carry commonly used handguns for self-defense. 

The Court also looked to history to define the contours of that right, as ACLL had urged it to do. History reveals that carrying “dangerous or unusual weapons” for the purpose of terrifying the public was illegal, as was carrying arms into highly sensitive places like schools or government buildings. But the Court reasoned that those situations were different than a person carrying a handgun for self-defense in public. 

“Today’s decision was a major victory for the right of self-defense and for the rule of law,” said Matt Clark, ACLL’s President. “The Second Amendment is not a second-class right, and today’s decision gave it the respect it deserves. We commend the Court for its well-reasoned decision, and we hope to see more like it in the future.” 

ACLL is a conservative nonprofit legal organization based in Birmingham, Alabama, and it is the litigation arm of the Alabama Policy Institute. For more information, visit ACLL’s website at www.alabamalawandliberty.org.