– January 7, 1960
– 2008 filed an amicus brief in District of Columbia v. Heller
– His Heller amicus brief was cited four times in the Court’s Heller opinions
– His brief in McDonald v. Chicago (2010) was cited by Justice Alito’s plurality opinion, and twice by Justice – Stevens’ dissent
About Dave Kopel
David B. Kopel is one of the most widely cited Second Amendment scholars in the United States. He is Research Director of the Independence Institute, a free-market think tank in Denver, Colorado, and an Adjunct Scholar at the Cato Institute. A graduate of Brown University (B.A., 1982, highest honors in history) and the University of Michigan Law School (J.D., 1985, magna cum laude), he previously served as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Colorado, enforcing environmental laws, and later wrote a media column for the Rocky Mountain News from 2001 to 2009.
Kopel’s scholarship has directly reached the Supreme Court. His amicus brief in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), filed for a coalition of law enforcement organizations and district attorneys, was cited four times in the Court’s opinions, and he was part of the team presenting oral argument in the case. His brief in McDonald v. Chicago (2010) was cited by Justice Alito’s plurality opinion and twice by Justice Stevens’ dissent. He is a co-author of the law school casebook Firearms Law and the Second Amendment: Regulation, Rights, and Policy, published in a second edition in 2018, and has written on firearms law for the Volokh Conspiracy.
Key Facts
- 1985: J.D., magna cum laude, University of Michigan Law School
- 2001-2009: Media columnist for the Rocky Mountain News
- 2008: Heller amicus brief cited four times by the Supreme Court
- 2010: McDonald v. Chicago brief cited by Justice Alito’s plurality opinion
- 2013: Publishes The Truth About Gun Control (Encounter Books)
- 2018: Second edition of Firearms Law and the Second Amendment (Aspen)
Sources
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