Aliens may be armed: second amendment for all.

AuthorDoherty, Brian
PositionCitings - Right to bear arms

UNDOCUMENTED immigrants may have a right to bear arms, according to an August decision written by Judge Diane Wood for a three-judge panel in the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Non-citizen Mariano Meza-Rodriguez was arrested after he got into a bar fight with a .22 caliber cartridge on him. That violated a federal statute that makes it illegal for an alien to "possess in or affecting commerce, any firearm or ammunition."

The Supreme Court's Heller decision doesn't address illegal immigrants, and at least three other appeals circuits have said they have no Second Amendment rights. The 7th Circuit disagreed, saying the "people" of the Second Amendment are the same "people" in the Fourth Amendment. Search and seizure protections have been found to apply to aliens with "substantial ties" to the U.S., and the court ruled that Meza-Rodriguez...

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