WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 21, 2021) — Today, the Madison Society Foundation (MSF) announced that it has filed an important merits-stage United States Supreme Court brief in the Second Amendment case of NYSRPA v. Bruen, the latest Second Amendment case granted by the Court. The brief can be found at FPCLegal.org.
The brief, authored by attorney and Firearms Policy Coalition’s Senior Director of Legal Operations, Adam Kraut, provides the Court with key historical resources, arguing that: our nation’s history and traditions should inform the Court’s interpretation of the enumerated right to bear arms; the founding era is the relevant time period for determining the original understanding of the Second Amendment; under a historical analysis consistent with D.C. v. Heller, public places were not understood to be “sensitive places” where arms could not be carried; and because individuals have a fundamental pre-existing right to carry arms in public, the “sensitive places” doctrine cannot swallow the Constitution’s rule.
“An analysis of the Second Amendment’s text, as it is informed by the nation’s history and tradition, dispositively confirms that the right to ‘bear arms’ extends beyond the confines of one’s home,” the brief says. “Indeed, the modus operandi of founding-era Americans was to carry arms in public as part of daily life.”
MSF’s brief goes on to request that the Court “restore the scope of the right [to bear arms] to align with its original public meaning and practices where the other branches have exceeded their constitutional limits.”
“Since our founding, the Madison Society Foundation has worked to promote the fundamental, individual right to bear arms in our legal efforts, education, and training. We believe that this brief is an important element of the Court’s analysis of the Second Amendment and look forward to the Court’s decision in this case,” said the Foundation’s operations director, Doug Welborn.
“This brief provides the Supreme Court with the historical context necessary to understand the contours of the right to bear arms based on the Second Amendment’s original public meaning,” said Kraut. “As the Court has held for many different constitutional rights, the understanding and practices of the public during the founding era guides the analysis. And a thorough survey of the relevant history confirms that the carrying of arms in public was not just an everyday occurrence, but sometimes required by law. With this in mind, the Court should reverse the Second Circuit’s misguided opinion and uphold the fundamental right to carry in public.”
Madison Society Foundation (www.madison-society.org) is a 501(c)(3) grassroots nonprofit based in California. It promotes and preserves the purposes of the Constitution of the United States, in particular the right to keep and bear arms. MSF provides the general public and its members with education and training on this important right.
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