2008
Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to possess a firearm
- Argued March 18, 2008
Decided June 26, 2008 - 554 U.S. 570
- landmark case from the Supreme Court of the United States
- held that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia
- Supreme Court affirmed by a vote of 5 to 4
- Heller had approached the National Rifle Association about a lawsuit to overturn the D.C. gun ban, but they declined
About District of Columbia v. Heller
District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008), is the first modern Supreme Court decision to hold squarely that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms, unconnected with service in a militia. The case challenged the District of Columbia’s 1976 firearms law, which generally barred handgun possession and required lawfully owned long guns in the home to be kept unloaded and disassembled or bound by a trigger lock. Dick Heller, a D.C. special police officer who carried a handgun on duty, was refused a permit to keep one at home and became the named plaintiff after the D.C. Circuit struck down the law in Parker v. District of Columbia (2007).
Writing for a 5-4 majority, Justice Antonin Scalia held that the handgun ban and the trigger-lock requirement violated the Second Amendment, because the handgun is the quintessential self-defense weapon and the home is where the need for defense is most acute. Justice John Paul Stevens and Justice Stephen Breyer each wrote dissents. For gun owners, Heller is the foundation of modern Second Amendment law: it was extended to the states in McDonald v. City of Chicago (2010), and its text-and-history approach was developed further in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen (2022) and United States v. Rahimi (2024).
Key Facts
- 1976 – District of Columbia adopts the handgun ban and storage rules at issue
- 2007 – D.C. Circuit strikes down the law in Parker v. District of Columbia
- March 18, 2008 – Case argued before the Supreme Court
- June 26, 2008 – Decided 5-4; majority opinion by Justice Scalia
- 2010 – McDonald v. City of Chicago applies the Heller right to state and local governments
- 2022 – Bruen builds on Heller’s text-and-history method
