Second Amendment Does Not Apply to Illegal Immigrants, Court Says
By Courthouse News, Wed, December 19, 2012
(CN) - The Second Amendment right to bear arms does not extend to people who are in the United States illegally, the 4th Circuit ruled.
While searching Orangeburg, S.C., home of Mexican national Nicolas Carpio-Leon, immigration agents found a .22 caliber Marlin rifle, a 9 mm Hi-Point pistol and ammunition.
Carpio-Leon, who had lived in Orangeburg for 13 years and had three American-born children, claimed that he kept the firearms for the protection of his home and his children. He admitted he was in the United States illegally, and had used a false Social Security number to get a driver's license.
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While undocumented aliens are "persons" guaranteed due process of law by the Fifth and 14th Amendments, they are "harder to trace and more likely to assume a false identity," and are already living outside the law, giving the government a legitimate interest to prohibit them from bearing firearms, the opinion states.
The court dismissed as irrelevant evidence that Carpio-Leon said would show that undocumented workers are no more dangerous to society than legal aliens or American citizens.
Second Amendment Does Not Apply to Illegal Immigrants, Court Says
By Courthouse News, Wed, December 19, 2012
(CN) - The Second Amendment right to bear arms does not extend to people who are in the United States illegally, the 4th Circuit ruled.
While searching Orangeburg, S.C., home of Mexican national Nicolas Carpio-Leon, immigration agents found a .22 caliber Marlin rifle, a 9 mm Hi-Point pistol and ammunition.
Carpio-Leon, who had lived in Orangeburg for 13 years and had three American-born children, claimed that he kept the firearms for the protection of his home and his children. He admitted he was in the United States illegally, and had used a false Social Security number to get a driver's license.
---
While undocumented aliens are "persons" guaranteed due process of law by the Fifth and 14th Amendments, they are "harder to trace and more likely to assume a false identity," and are already living outside the law, giving the government a legitimate interest to prohibit them from bearing firearms, the opinion states.
The court dismissed as irrelevant evidence that Carpio-Leon said would show that undocumented workers are no more dangerous to society than legal aliens or American citizens.
Second Amendment Does Not Apply to Illegal Immigrants, Court Says
