Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/07pdf/07-290.pdf
Page Number: 86

Cite as:  554 U. S. ____ (2008) 

19 

STEVENS, J., dissenting 

compromise was reached: Congress would be authorized to 
raise and support a national Army18 and Navy, and also to
organize, arm, discipline, and provide for the calling forth
of  “the  Militia.”  U. S.  Const.,  Art.  I,  §8,  cls.  12–16.    The 
President, at the same time, was empowered as the “Com­
mander  in  Chief  of  the  Army  and  Navy  of  the  United
States,  and  of  the  Militia  of  the  several  States,  when 
called  into  the  actual  Service  of  the  United  States.”  Art. 
II, §2.  But, with respect to the militia, a significant reser­
vation  was  made  to  the  States:  Although  Congress  would
have  the  power  to  call  forth,19  organize,  arm,  and  disci­
pline  the  militia,  as  well  as  to  govern  “such  Part  of  them 
as  may  be  employed  in  the  Service  of  the  United  States,” 
the  States  respectively  would  retain  the  right  to  appoint
the officers and to train the militia in accordance with the 
discipline prescribed by Congress.  Art. I, §8, cl. 16.20 

—————— 

49, 49–50 (Sept. 15, 1780).  And Alexander Hamilton argued this view 
in many debates.  In 1787, he wrote: 

“Here  I  expect  we  shall  be  told  that  the  militia  of  the  country  is  its
natural  bulwark,  and  would  be  at  all  times  equal  to  the  national 
defense.    This  doctrine,  in  substance,  had  like  to  have  lost  us  our 
independence.  . .  .    War,  like  most  other  things,  is  a  science  to  be 
acquired  and  perfected  by  diligence,  by  perseverance,  by  time,  and  by
practice.”  The Federalist No. 25, p. 166 (C. Rossiter ed. 1961). 

18 “[B]ut no Appropriation of Money to that Use [raising and support­
ing  Armies]  shall  be  for  a  longer  Term  than  two  Years.”    U. S.  Const., 
Art I, §8, cl. 12 

19 This “calling forth” power was only permitted in order for the mili­
tia “to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel
Invasions.”  Id., Art. I, §8, cl. 15. 

20 The  Court  assumes—incorrectly,  in  my  view—that  even  when  a 
state militia  was not called into service, Congress would have had the 
power to exclude individuals from enlistment in that state militia.  See 
ante, at 27.  That assumption is not supported by the text of the Militia
Clauses  of  the  original  Constitution,  which  confer  upon  Congress  the 
power  to  “organiz[e],  ar[m],  and  disciplin[e],  the  Militia,”  Art. I,  §8,  cl.
16, but not the power to say who will be members of a state militia.  It 
is  also  flatly  inconsistent  with  the  Second  Amendment.    The  States’ 
power  to  create  their  own  militias  provides  an  easy  answer  to  the