Thread by @2Aupdates

"The newly liberated citizens faced waves of terror across the South, emboldened by ordinances prohibiting them from carrying arms for self-defense."

"Representative Butler, who drafted the Act, explained how 'in many counties' the 'men who oppress' black citizens 'preceded their outrages ... by disarming [them], in violation of [their] right[s] as ... citizen[s] to "keep and bear arms,"...'"

"Today, the vast majority of states—at least 43—continue to respect the right of their citizens to carry arms for self-defense. New York is not among them."

"Following a sharp rise in European immigration to cities in the Northeast, states and localities began crafting ways to keep arms out of the hands of immigrants. New York was at the forefront of this new wave of discrimination..."

"According to the New York Times—which itself derided the purported 'affinity of "low-browed foreigners" for handguns'—'[i]n the first three years of the Sullivan Law,' a remarkable '70 percent of those arrested had Italian surnames.'"

"good moral character" huh

"Good, even impeccable, moral character plus a simple desire to exercise a fundamental right is not sufficient. Nor is living or being employed in a 'high crime area.'"

"For example, courts have repeatedly affirmed findings of no 'proper cause' for applicants whose jobs require them to 'carry large amounts of cash in areas "noted for criminal activity."'"

"Courts have also upheld determinations that an applicant lacked 'proper cause' based on nothing more than 'the absence of documentation substantiating threats to petitioner personally.'"

"Moreover, it is common for individuals who have satisfied state officials that they are qualified to possess and carry firearms for other purposes, such as hunting and target shooting, to nonetheless be denied a license to carry a handgun for self-defense."

"That conclusion is compelled by the text, history, and tradition of the Second Amendment, all of which confirm that the right it secures encompasses a right to carry handguns outside the home for self-defense."

"Moreover, the substantial discretion afforded government officials exacerbates the constitutional difficulties and reflects the law’s origins as a mechanism to selectively disarm the people."

"After all, it is 'extremely improbable that the Framers understood the Second Amendment to protect little more than carrying a gun from the bedroom to the kitchen.'"

"Indeed, the Second Amendment would have been of little value to the freedman if it did not enshrine a right to both keep and carry arms, as the violence perpetrated against them was by no means confined to their homes."

"That caveat would have been nonsensical if the Second Amendment does not protect the right to carry arms outside the home at all."

"This Court’s opinion in Caetano v. Massachusetts likewise makes sense only on the understanding that the Second Amendment is not a homebound right."

"This Court would not tarry long over a law that reserved First Amendment rights to those with an unusually compelling need to worship or criticize the government, or a law that reserved Fourth Amendment rights to those with an especial need for privacy."

"Simply put, when it comes to fundamental constitutional rights, discretion is a vice, not a virtue. Yet New York leaves it to the practically unreviewable discretion of a licensing officer to decide who may exercise the fundamental right to carry a handgun for self-defense."

"The prospect that the substantial discretion that New York’s Sullivan Law gives to local officials could be used to selectively disarm individuals is far from hypothetical. It is arguably the law’s raison d’etre."

"To be clear, petitioners have not been denied licenses because they are insufficiently trained or trustworthy to carry a firearm... both Nash and Koch have been licensed to carry firearms for purposes less constitutionally and historically central than self-defense."

"...the Second Amendment plainly forecloses New York’s refusal to let petitioners carry handguns for self-defense just because the state is not convinced that they have demonstrated an unusual need to exercise fundamental rights guaranteed to all."