Liberal Law Professors in Favor of Gun Rights

When speaking of stereotypes, it is common to assume that a liberal scholar would be in favor of gun control. In recent years however, there has been a noticeable trend amongst liberal law professors to contradict the above assumption. Though this group remains very much a minority, professors such as Lawrence Tribe from Harvard and Akhil Reed Amar from Yale have reevaluated their interpretation of the second amendment and concluded that it does indeed protect the individual’s right to bear arms.

This scholarly backing of the individual rights view of the second amendment is credited by Mr. Levy as being one of the reasons that his client’s lawsuit against the District of Columbia was successful. Mr. Levy was a lawyer for the plaintiff in the case Parker v. District of Columbia brought before a federal appellate court in March. The court made a surprising decision to strike down a gun control law because it violated the second amendment. If the decision is not reversed by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, then it is likely that the case will appear before the Supreme Court.