CASE REPORT

Case Report: 2008 District of Columbia v. Heller

Case Report: 2008 District of Columbia v. Heller

Introduction

District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. (2008) was a landmark case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution protects an individual's right to possess a firearm for private use within the home in federal enclaves (Heller, 2008). The decision did not address the question of whether the Second Amendment extends beyond federal enclaves to the states. It was the first Supreme Court case in United States history to decide whether the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms for self defense.

On June 26, 2008, the Supreme Court affirmed the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Parker v. District of Columbia. The Court of Appeals had struck down provisions of the Firearms Control Regulations Act of 1975 as unconstitutional, determined that handguns are "arms" for the purposes of the Second Amendment, found that the District of Columbia's regulations act was an unconstitutional banning, and struck down the portion of the regulations act that requires all firearms including rifles and shotguns be kept "unloaded and disassembled or bound by a trigger lock." "Prior to this decision the Firearms Control Regulation Act of 1975 also restricted residents from owning handguns except for those registered prior to 1975."

Background on the Supreme Court's Ruling in Heller

The Statutes at Issue

Heller has been described in the media as a case about a ban on handguns, and while this characterization is not entirely incorrect, it oversimplifies the statutes that were at issue (United States v. Cavera, 2008). Heller involved a challenge to three specific provisions of the District Code: (1) a prohibition on the registration of any handguns after September 24, 1976 by any individuals other than retired police officers; (2) a prohibition on the carrying of any unlicensed weapons; and (3) a requirement that firearms kept in the home be unloaded and disassembled or bound by trigger lock. Taken together, these regulations effectively prohibited the ownership or use of handguns by private citizens in the District. The D.C. Code did not prohibit the ownership or use of rifles or shotguns, with the exception of “sawed-off” shotguns (Barnes, 2008, A1).

The Supreme Court's Ruling

By a vote of five to four, the Supreme Court affirmed, determining that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear firearms. The Court, however, declined to articulate the full scope of the Second Amendment right, holding simply that the Second Amendment “necessarily takes certain policy choices off the table,” including “the absolute prohibition of handguns held and used for self-defense in the home.” The Court did not articulate the standard of scrutiny (e.g., rational basis, intermediate scrutiny or strict scrutiny) for Second Amendment challenges to gun control laws (David, 2008). The majority, however, cautioned that its ruling does not threaten many long-standing firearms restrictions, such as “prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, ...