Document Type
Article
Publication
Iowa Law Review
Year
2007
Citation Information
Pratheepan Gulasekaram, Aliens with Guns: Equal Protection, Federal Power, and the Second Amendment, 92 Iowa L. Rev. 891 (2007), available at https://scholar.law.colorado.edu/faculty-articles/1795.
Abstract
The nexus between guns and alienage presents a window through which to assess the competing constitutional values embodied in the Equal Protection Clause, the federal foreign-affairs power, and the Second Amendment. This Article analyzes the application of equal-protection norms and the federal foreign-affairs power on federal and state statutes that restrict the ability of non-citizens to bear arms. Professor Gulasekaram argues that courts should evaluate alienage restrictions at both the state and federal level under a unified analytic framework that would attempt to reconcile both personhood norms, such as equality, and gate-keeping norms vindicated by reliance on federal-power doctrines. As a result, the power of the federal government to legislate with regard to non-citizens would be reduced while concurrently allowing greater flexibility for states and localities.
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