Director of Stetson’s Veterans Law Institute examines veterans’ Second Amendment rights in article
The article, “Depriving Our Veterans of Their Constitutional Rights: An Analysis of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Practice of Stripping Veterans of Their Second Amendment Rights and Our Nation’s Response” by Professor Stacey-Rae Simcox, was accepted for publication in the Utah Law Review in March.
Introduction
“The oath that every enlisted member and officer of the United States Armed Forces takes before serving includes the solemn promise to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic” and to “bear true faith and allegiance to the same.” This oath contains no time limit and many veterans consider themselves to be bound by these promises for their entire lives.“
Article Summary
In recent years, the VA has been treading on the rights of veterans by systematically stripping them of their Second Amendment right to possess a firearm. Divesting a veteran of his or her constitutional rights in a manner that affords less protections than other citizens receive creates an unconstitutional infringement of the veteran’s Second Amendment rights under the United States Constitution. This situation is particularly ironic and shameful when one considers the lasting oath of all who have served in the Armed Forces of the United States to support and defend the Constitution above all else.
This article contrasts and compares the determination of financial incompetency in the VA to other determinations of “mental defectiveness” in order to demonstrate that the VA’s standards do not rise to the level of “adjudicat[ing] [the veteran] a mental defective” necessary to be stripped of his constitutional rights. This article also argues that including veterans determined financially incompetent for VA purposes on a list of persons unable to exercise their Second Amendment rights is an unconstitutional deprivation of these rights and must be remedied not only for those veterans who may be affected in the future, but for those veterans who find themselves in this situation currently.
About Professor Simcox
Stacey-Rae Simcox is a Professor of Law and Director of Stetson University College of Law’s Veterans Law Institute and Veterans Advocacy Clinic. She teaches in the areas of veterans benefits law, administrative law, trusts and estates, and legal skills.
Post date: Nov. 4, 2019
Media contact: Kate Bradshaw
[email protected] | 727-430-1580