please welcome tim sandefur. [applause] >> thank you very much.i would like to talk more generally, not particularly about gun rights, but about the more abstract constitutional issues that are involved in the mcdonald case because this is one of those cases that i think if the supreme court goes the way that i certainly hope it goes, it will be one of these cases where tenure so that we will look back on this as a major decision of the u.s. supreme court. to understand the issues involved in the mcdonald case, requires us to examine some issues of constitutional structure and political philosophy. the 14th amendment was intended to be the final word in a debate over the nature of individual rights and the relationship the federalism that had occupied the 19th century. that debate was alternately the cause of the civil war, and with the end of that war, the leaders of the victoria street union, that is, the republican party of course, wrote the 14th amendment in order to make their model of sovereignty and individual rights a permanent part of the

please welcome tim sandefur. >> thank you very much.uld like to talk more generally, not particularly about gun rights, but the more abstract constitutional issues involved in the macdonald case. this is one of the casesñr where if the supreme court goes the way i hope it goes, 10 years from now we will look on this is one of the major decisions of the u.s. supreme court. understanding the issues in this case requires us to examine some issues of constitutional structure and political philosophy. the 14th amendment was intended to be the final word in the debate over the nature of individual rights and the relationship to federalism that had occupied the 19th century. that debate was ultimately the cause of the civil war, and at the end of that war, the leaders of the victorious union, the republican party, wrote the fifth band -- the 15th amendment to make their model of sovereignty and individual rights to a permanent part of the american constitution. as with all things and intellectual history, it is hard to categorize that uniquely

i have a historical question for tim sandefur. presumably when the supreme court essentially eliminate the core of the 14th in a minute, many of them and let pass of protection over to were still around. was there much stronger reaction. did they reckon eyes what would happen and was a response to a historically? >> as far as i know surprisingly little at first, of course, then in 1875 i think it is in the debate over the ku klux klan bill, then there is a whole second round of discussions in congress over what the privileges or immunities clause was intended to mean back there and so forth. but i haven't looked in for instant newspapers and magazines that i have not examined that so i don't know the answer to that. of course, remember slaughterhouse is 1873. that was the same year that the supreme court relying on its decision in the slaughterhouse held that women had no rights to practice law and therefore the state of illinois could forbid her from taking the blogs and. i think it was two years which was a colfax massacre case