St. George Tucker’s Second Amendment: Deconstructing ‘The True Palladium of Liberty’

St. George Tucker, known as “America’s Blackstone” and author of the first commentary on the Constitution in 1803, described the Second Amendment right of the people to keep and bear arms as “the true palladium of liberty.” In a recent symposium at the William and Mary College of Law, Prof. Saul Cornell presented Tucker as an adherent of the view that the Amendment guarantees a collective or civic right to bear arms in the militia, not an individual right to have arms for self defense or as a dissuasion to tyranny. In response, my article scrutinizes Tucker’s work in detail to demonstrate that Tucker did indeed interpret the Amendment as protecting individual rights, and that Tucker’s views are a significant reflection of the intent of the Framers

St. George Tucker\u27s Second Amendment: Deconstructing The True Palladium of Liberty

The Bill of Rights, according to the above view, is designed to inform ordinary citizens of their rights. Its meaning is not a monopoly of the governmental entities whose powers the Bill of Rights was intended to limit. By knowing when their rights are violated, the citizens may signify their displeasure through mechanisms, such as the ballot box and the jury box, and may resort to speech, the press, assembly, and petition to denounce the evil. The Second Amendment right of the people to keep and bear Arms was intended to serve as the ultimate check, which the Founders hoped would dissuade people at the helm of state from seeking to establish tyranny