The Second Amendment protects the individual right to keep and bear arms for self-defense, but for 127 years after its ratification, courts held it only limited the federal government, not states or cities. States and municipalities could ban guns entirely. Chicago had done so for handguns, making ownership illegal. In McDonald v. City of Chicago (2010), the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the Second Amendment applies to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause—a principle called incorporation.
Before McDonald, constitutional rights applied piecemeal to the states. Some amendments (First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth) were incorporated; others weren't. The Second Amendment was the rare right courts had withheld from states until McDonald. The Court found that the right to self-defense is "fundamental to our scheme of ordered liberty" and deeply rooted in American history, meeting the incorporation test. Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the majority; Justice Clarence Thomas concurred but argued incorporation should come through the Privileges or Immunities Clause instead of the Due Process Clause—a distinction with major doctrinal implications that the majority declined to adopt.
The decision struck down Chicago's handgun ban and forced every state and city to respect the Second Amendment. But the Court explicitly left room for regulation: background checks, bans on felons possessing firearms, and licensing requirements are constitutional. The boundary between protected rights and permissible regulation remains contested.
McDonald extended Second Amendment protections to all states, preventing gun bans at the state and local level. It reshaped federalism by creating a national constitutional floor for firearm rights.
People often confuse incorporation with creating new rights. McDonald didn't invent the Second Amendment—it applied an existing right to states that had previously been able to ban guns entirely. The doctrine of incorporation is the mechanism.
McDonald extended Second Amendment protections to all states, preventing gun bans at the state and local level. It reshaped federalism by creating a national constitutional floor for firearm rights.
People often confuse incorporation with creating new rights. McDonald didn't invent the Second Amendment—it applied an existing right to states that had previously been able to ban guns entirely. The doctrine of incorporation is the mechanism.