Presser v. Illinois

Presser v. Illinois
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued November 23–24, 1885 Decided January 4, 1886
Full case name	Herman Presser v. State of Illinois
Citations	116 U.S. 252 (more) 6 S. Ct. 580; 29 L. Ed. 615; 1886 U.S. LEXIS 1760
Holding
The states may forbid private armies. The Second Amendment only applies to the federal government.
Court membership
Chief Justice Morrison Waite Associate Justices Samuel F. Miller · Stephen J. Field Joseph P. Bradley · John M. Harlan William B. Woods · Stanley Matthews Horace Gray · Samuel Blatchford
Case opinion
Majority	Woods, joined by unanimous
Overruled by
McDonald v. City of Chicago (2010)

Presser v. Illinois, 116 U.S. 252 (1886), was a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States that held, "Unless restrained by their own constitutions, state legislatures may enact statutes to control and regulate all organizations, drilling, and parading of military bodies and associations except those which are authorized by the militia laws of the United States."^[1] It states that the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution limited only the power of Congress and the national government to control firearms, not that of the states, and that the right to peaceably assemble in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution was not protected by the clause referred to except to petition the government for a redress of grievances. This decision was overruled in McDonald v. City of Chicago in (2010).