When Two Rights Make a Wrong: Armed Assembly Under the First and Second Amendments

Michael C. Dorf | August 29, 2021

This Essay argues on textual, historical, doctrinal, and normative grounds that there is no constitutional right of armed assembly. It rejects the proposition that the First Amendment right to assemble and the putative Second Amendment right to public carriage of firearms in nonsensitive places combine to create a right to armed assembly. While acknowledging that in some circumstances the courts recognize a hybrid right that is greater than the sum of its parts, this Essay finds no basis for concluding that the First and Second Amendments add up to a right to armed assembly.