"A Vain and Idle Enactment: Could McDonald v. Chicago Un-Slaughter the Privileges or Immunities Clause?"

Georgetown University Law Center

McDonough Hall - Hart Auditorium

600 New Jersey Avenue, NW

Washington, D.C. 20001

Alan Gura, Partner, Gura & Possessky, PLLC; Lead Counsel, District of Columbia v. Heller; Lead Counsel, McDonald v. Chicago; Georgetown Law Class of 1995

Randy Barnett, Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Legal Theory, Georgetown University Law Center

Kurt Lash, James P. Bradley Chair of Constitutional Law, Loyola Law School; Author, The Origins of the Privileges or Immunities Clause (Georgetown Law Journal, forthcoming)

David Gans, Program Director, Constitutional Accountability Center; Author, The Gem of the Constitution: The Text and History of the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment

This event is sponsored by the Georgetown Law Journal, the Georgetown Law chapters of the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy and the Federalist Society for Law & Public Policy Studies, and the Georgetown Law Militia.

The panelists will discuss the current Supreme Court case McDonald v. Chicago, in which the Court will decide whether the 2nd Amendment is incorporated to apply to the states.  Following up on its decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, the Court may decide to breathe life into the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the 14th Amendment, a clause which has essentially remained "vain and idle" since the Slaughterhouse cases in 1873. 

The panelists will provide a historical understanding of the Privileges or Immunities Clause, whether it can properly serve as a vehicle for incorporation, and the implications that would result if the Court adopts this position.

A Webcast will be available at http://www.law.georgetown.edu/webcast/.

Media interested in attending should e-mail mediarelations@law.georgetown.edu.