« Blagojevich -- the movie! | Main | Interesting thoughts on Europeans and firearms »
My article on St. George Tucker is online
"The Lecture Notes of St. George Tucker: A Framing Era View of the Bill of Rights," 103 Northwestern U. L Rev. Colloquy 272 (2008).
The pdf version is here and the html version here.
At 277 I get into Tucker's notes on the 2d Amendment. At 278-79, I get into the Stevens dissent in Heller for having claimed that Tucker was ambivalent on the 2A. The majority cited Tucker's great 1803 Blackstone, where he had a number of clearly individual-right statements about the 2A. The dissent says that Tucker was ambivalent, his lecture notes from 1791-92, closer to the Framing, were more state power over the militia.
In fact, the documents cited were from Tucker's lecture on the powers of Congress over the militia, when he mentions the 2A and talks about State power to arm the militia if Congress neglects the issue. He gets to the Bill of Rights 20 pages farther on. And when he does, he discusses it in the same words he would later use in Blackstone, often literally the same words!
Comments
Excellent work, Mr. Hardy!
I love studying your scholarship.
Your writing is lucid, well-argued, and expertly documented.
I look forward to carefully studying "The Lecture Notes of St. George Tucker: A Framing Era View of the Bill of Rights" when I go on my Christmas vacation.
Thank you for your 30 years of service in the cause of intellectually defending the Second Amendment and the right to bear arms for the purpose of just self-defense against oppressors and aggressors, foreign and domestic.
Have a Merry Christmas!
I know I will.
Posted by: Tarn Helm at December 22, 2008 05:52 PM