Second-Class Constitutional Rights: Are They Real?

Justice Clarence Thomas has repeatedly suggested that the U.S. Supreme Court treats certain rights as first class and others as second class.

Thomas complained that the court relegated “the Second Amendment to a second-class right,” in his dissent in Voisine v. United States, 2016 BL 205027, 84 U.S.L.W. 4525 (U.S. June 27, 2016) (Thomas, J., dissenting), which upheld a restriction on gun ownership for those convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence.

Thomas also said that the majority would treat an analogous potential violation of the First Amendment differently, suggesting that it “would strike down an absolute ...