Over five years ago, Bob Levy and three other attorneys filed Parker v. District of Columbia, a Second Amendment case on behalf of six local residents who want to defend themselves in their own homes. On March 9, 2007, in a blockbuster opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit overturned the city's gun ban - holding that "the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms." A year later, on March 18, 2008, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Parker (now captioned District of Columbia v. Heller) - the first Second Amendment case to come before the Court since 1939.
Bob Levy is senior fellow in constitutional studies and a member of the board of directors at the Cato Institute, which he joined in 1997 after 25 years in business. He also sits on boards of the Institute for Justice, the Federalist Society, and the George Mason University School of Law. He founded CDA Investment Technologies, a major provider of financial information and software, and was its CEO until 1991. Levy clerked for Judge Royce C. Lamberth on the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., and for Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. From 1997 until 2004, Levy was an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University. He has written numerous articles on investments, law, and public policy. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Washington Post, National Review, and many other publications. Levy has also discussed public policy on national radio and TV programs, including ABC's Nightline, CNN's Crossfire, Fox's The O'Reilly Factor, MSNBC's Hardball, and NBC's Today Show. His next book, co-authored with William Mellor and scheduled for Spring 2008 release, is The Dirty Dozen: How Twelve Supreme Court Cases Radically Expanded Government and Eroded Freedom. Levy received his Ph.D. in business from the American University and his J.D. degree from the George Mason University School of Law.
For more background on the issues, see D.C. Gun Case.
Presented by the Milwaukee Lawyers Chapter and Marquette Law Student Chapter.
