Please take a look at the Washington Times Op-Ed Ilya Shapiro and I wrote about McDonald v. Chicago. It provides a concise explanation of the issues confronting the Supreme Court in the upcoming Second Amendment incorporation case.

The Op-Ed is based on our article, Keeping Pandora’s Box Sealed: Privileges or Immunities, The Constitution in 2020, and Properly Extending the Right to Keep and Bear Arms to the States, which was published this month in the Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy.

I will be presenting Pandora’s Box at the George Mason University School of Law in Room 120  on Monday, March 1 at 12:00 p.m. Ilya will be speaking at the Cato Institute on March 1 at 4:00 p.m. Ilya and I will be presenting Pandora’s Box together at the Georgetown University Law Center in Room 201, McDonough Hall on Tuesday, March 2 at 3:30 p.m. We will also be providing an instant recap of oral arguments, and offer our projections how the Court will decide. Ilya will also be presenting at Capitol Hill Briefing at B-340 Rayburn House Office Building on March 3 at 12:00 p.m. We invite everyone to attend.

Keeping Pandora’s Box Sealed provides a thorough analysis of the issues confronting the Court in McDonald v. City of Chicago. While numerous articles have discussed the original meaning of the Second Amendment and of the Privileges or Immunities Clause, ours is the first following District of Columbia v. Heller to consider practically how the Privileges or Immunities Clause protects the right to keep and bear arms. Further, because we completed this article in January 2010, it provides an up-to-date survey of scholarship relevant to McDonald.

Our article shows how the Second Amendment could be incorporated through the Due Process Clause, though this approach is historically deficient. Applying the Court’s framework from Washington v. Glucksberg—to protect fundamental rights deeply rooted in our nation’s history and traditions—we conclude that the Privileges or Immunities Clause is a more constitutionally faithful way to protect and extend the right to keep and bear arms to the States.  Further, we provide a roadmap of how the Clause can be used to protect this right.

Keeping Pandora’s Box Sealed has been cited in the petitioners’ reply brief, as well as in the brief of amici curiae the Cato Institute and Pacific Legal Foundation. Our article has also been discussed by scholars on leading legal blogs, such as the Volokh Conspiracy and SCOTUSblog.