U.S. Constitution News

The Daily Signal provides reporting and analysis on the U.S. Constitution, including court rulings, separation of powers, and the defense of individual rights.
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  • opinion

    11 Incidents in Which Lawful Gun Owners Made a Difference

    As the Supreme Court continued its decadelong silence in protecting the Second Amendment, Americans last month nevertheless proved that they understand the importance of the right to keep and bear arms. The FBI conducted a record-high 3.9 million background checks for firearms sales and transfers in June. The previous record of 3.7 million was set…
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  • news

    GOP Lawmakers Urge Attorney General to Defend St. Louis Couple’s Gun Rights After Firearm Confiscation

    GOP lawmakers wrote a letter to Attorney General William Barr Friday, urging the protection of the firearm rights of the St. Louis couple that saw their guns confiscated after they went viral for defending their home against demonstrators, according to reports. Mark and Patricia McCloskey were seen in a video brandishing a M16A2-style rifle and small…
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  • opinion

    ‘Don’t Be a Vigilante’ and Other Gun Ownership Mistakes to Avoid

    Millions of American gun owners are incredibly responsible. Every month, I find story after story of law-abiding citizens who used their firearms in lawful defense of themselves or others. Unfortunately, in looking through these stories, I also find far too many instances where gun owners messed up, acted irresponsibly, or didn’t appear to fully understand…
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  • opinion

    Justices Continue Long, Shameful Silence on Second Amendment

    When the Supreme Court earlier this spring dismissed a New York gun case from its docket without ruling on the merits, disappointed Second Amendment advocates still had high hopes. After all, even though the court hadn’t decided a meaningful Second Amendment case in more than a decade, at least four justices had recently signaled their…
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  • opinion

    Campus War on Free Speech Reaches US Newsrooms

    Two weeks ago, if you’d asked what American institution was most intolerant of dissenting opinion, preoccupied with promoting radical ideology, and prone to erupting into disruptive temper tantrums, the answer would have been easy. Now it’s not so clear—the hysteria on college campuses has spread to America’s newsrooms. Over the weekend, the opinion page editor…
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  • opinion

    In These 11 Incidents, Gun Owners Defended Life and Property

    The last week of May proved just how quickly the seemingly stable peace of our world can devolve into chaos and near-anarchy. Many of us, already concerned that police departments were stretched thin by COVID-19, watched in horror as law enforcement seemed to lose control of protests in major cities. For several nights, police officers…
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  • opinion

    A Counterbalance to the False Narratives About Gun Ownership

    The data is in: Americans are flocking to gun stores in unprecedented numbers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The spike has left many gun control advocates struggling to find a motive other than pure, irrational panic. After all, the common narrative goes, “the good guy with a gun” is a myth and it’s very rare that…
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  • opinion

    11 More Cases in Which Responsible Gun Owners Saved Lives

    In recent weeks, several instances involving the reckless use of firearms dominated national headlines. In one case, a Georgia man tragically lost his life when armed civilians crossed the line between defensive necessity and vigilantism. But such headlines tell only one side of the story. Every day, many law-abiding and responsible Americans use their firearms…
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  • opinion

    The Supreme Court Punts on an Easy Second Amendment Case

    It’s been a decade since the Supreme Court affirmed, in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) and McDonald v. City of Chicago (2010), that the Second Amendment protects an individual and fundamental right, striking down laws that effectively prohibited the possession of handguns in one’s own home. Since then, the court has routinely declined to…
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  • opinion

    Loading a New Database of Defensive Gun Use

    For well over a year, The Daily Signal has published a monthly series highlighting lawful gun owners who used their firearms to protect their liberties, lives, or livelihoods. Although these articles recount just a dozen or so stories each month, the incidents are selected from hundreds of other, similar examples. Those defensive gun uses are…
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  • opinion

    11 Cases Where Gun Ownership Proved ‘Essential’

    As the COVID-19 pandemic sweeps across the country, millions of Americans now live in states where shutdown orders effectively have stripped them of the ability to buy firearms. Although most states rightly have allowed gun stores to continue operating, a minority deemed them “nonessential businesses” that must close. Unfortunately, these ordered closures generally have occurred…
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  • opinion

    Want to Keep Americans Safe Without More Gun Control? Meet the TAPS Act

    Too many lawmakers today cannot fathom a world where “keeping Americans safe from violence” means anything other than imposing stringent gun control measures. That makes it all the more important to highlight legislation that thinks outside the box of gun control and that gets public safety right without infringing on the rights of law-abiding Americans….
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  • opinion

    11 Examples of Bloomberg’s Folly on Defensive Gun Use

    Earlier this month, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was asked how he justified his push for more stringent gun control when he is guarded by an armed security detail. Bloomberg’s response? He is a wealthy businessman and politician who faces threats that normal Americans do not, so it’s just fine for him to…
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  • opinion

    Problematic Women: Her Husband Was Murdered in a Gun-Free Zone. Now Nikki Goeser Is Fighting Back.

    Nikki Goeser watched the man who had stalked her murder her husband in a gun-free zone. Because she was a law-abiding concealed carry permit holder, Goeser’s firearm was safely locked away in her vehicle, leaving her defenseless. Now a gun rights activist, Goeser is working hard to ensure every American has the means to protect…
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  • opinion

    Unserious Objections to Bolstering Free Speech on Campus

    Wisconsin lawmakers are taking the issue of free speech on campus seriously again—and, inexplicably, that has some people upset. Legislators recently advanced a proposal based on the commonsense idea that anyone “lawfully present on campus may protest or demonstrate,” as long as they do not interfere with someone else’s ability to do the same. The…
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  • opinion

    12 Times Gun Owners Defended Themselves and Others

    Many lawmakers around the country welcomed in the new year by pursuing legislation that would severely curtail the right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms. Meanwhile, law-abiding citizens began 2020 just as they ended 2019—by showing repeatedly just how instrumental that right is to the security of a free state. According to almost…
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  • news

    This County Is Utah’s First Sanctuary for Second Amendment

    A county in Utah has shot down the idea of more gun control by becoming the first county in the state to declare itself a Second Amendment sanctuary. The three-member Uintah County Commission voted unanimously to pass an ordinance making the county a stronghold that refuses to comply with federal or state laws on firearms…
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  • opinion

    Noncompliance With New Gun Laws Follows Historical Precedent

    On Jan. 20, as Americans remembered civil rights hero Martin Luther King Jr., an estimated 10,000 people peacefully rallied in Richmond, Virginia, to protest the recent introduction of highly contentious gun control bills into the state Legislature. Motivated in part by the “Second Amendment Sanctuary” movement that has seen more than 100 Virginia counties and…
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  • opinion

    We Hear You: From Gender Identity in Sports to Second Amendment Rights

    Editor's note: We're back with another batch of your emails on our coverage of the nation's policy debates. Got a point to make? Write to [email protected].—Ken McIntyre Dear Daily Signal: Kelsey Bolar’s treatment in her video report of the issue of transgender athletes in girls sports is more in depth than a previous article I…
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  • news

    These 10 Colleges Are Ranked ‘Worst of the Worst’ for Curbing Free Speech

    The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a group dedicated to standing up for free-speech rights on U.S. college and university campuses, this week released its annual report chastising the Top 10 schools where it says those rights are most infringed. Among the schools taken to task in this year’s report, “The 10 Worst Colleges for…
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