In response to my post on the purposes behind the Fourteenth Amendment and the light they shed on the right to keep and bear arms, Deborah Pearlstein says she “need[s] some help understanding the evidentiary weight Ishould accord Senator Howard’s remarks about the Fourteenth Amendmentto our understanding of the meaning of Second.” I’m happy to comply.Although what I have to say is formally in response to Deborah’squestions, in fact Deborah is really giving me an excuse to say alittle bit about the constitutional history of Reconstruction,America’s second founding. I offer these remarks to all of my fellowprogressive constitutional scholars.
