Posted by The Supreme Court and the Second Amendment
Robert J. Cottrol
Harold Paul Green Research Professor of Law
George Washington University
Brannon P. Denning
Starnes Professor of Law
Cumberland School of Law
At Busboys & Poets, 2021 14th St NW
In 2007, for the first time in almost 70 years, the Supreme Court heard a case involving the Second Amendment. The resulting decision in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) was the first time the Court declared a firearms restriction to be unconstitutional on the basis of the Second Amendment. It was followed two years later by a similar decision in McDonald v. City of Chicago, and in 2022, the Court further expanded its support for Second Amendment rights in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen—a decision the far-reaching implications of which are still being unraveled.
Discussing their recent book To Trust the People with Arms: The Supreme Court and the Second Amendment, Professors Robert J. Cottrol and Brannon P. Denning explore the remarkable and complex legal history of how the right to bear arms was widely accepted during the nation’s founding, was near extinction in the late 20th century, and is now experiencing a rebirth in the Supreme Court in the 21st century.
Time will be allocated for Q&A.
This program is run by the Yale Club of DC.
Food and drinks will be available for purchase.
Robert J. Cottrol earned his BA and PhD from Yale University and his JD from Georgetown Law School. In addition to being the Harold Paul Green Research Professor in the George Washington University Law School—the faculty of which he joined in 1995—he is Professor of History and Sociology in the Columbian College at George Washington University. He is a specialist in American and Comparative Legal History and also teaches criminal law. Professor Cottrol is the author of numerous books and dozens of book chapters and reviews, law review articles, and other published works on slavery and gun control, among other topics. His writings have been cited in opinions in the United States Supreme Court and the Third and Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeals among other courts.
Brannon P. Denning earned his undergraduate degree, magna cum laude, from the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, and his law degree, magna cum laude, from the University of Tennessee School of Law. He earned an LLM from the Yale Law School in 1999. From 1999-2003, he taught at Southern Illinois University School of Law before joining the Cumberland School of Law faculty at Samford University. Denning writes in the area of constitutional law and has authored numerous books and law review articles. In 2021, he was named in a University of Chicago Law Review article as one of the 20 most-cited young legal scholars in the country.