Shotguns, Weddings, and Lunch Counters: Why Cultural Frames Matter to Constitutional Law

49 Pages Posted: 22 Aug 2010 Last revised: 11 Mar 2012

See all articles by Anders Walker

Anders Walker

Saint Louis University - School of Law

Date Written: August 19, 2010

Abstract

Drawing from social movement theory, this article shows that both the constitutional challenge to gun bans in Illinois and the constitutional challenge to California’s same-sex marriage ban have had to deal with issues of frame alignment similar to those confronted by the civil rights movement in the 1960s. Yet, it is the Second Amendment litigation, ironically, that has most closely followed the movement’s attention to aligning legal claims with cultural trends. Out of this analysis emerges a larger claim that the analytics of frame alignment, and social movement theory generally, deserves more attention by constitutional scholars, both as a uniform analytic for comparing divergent reform agendas, and for better understanding the central role of cultural frames in determining the parameters of constitutional rights.

Keywords: civil rights, constitutional law, second amendment, 2nd amendment, same-sex marriage, Olsen, Sullivan, Wechsler, Marshall, marriage, free speech, culture, guns

Suggested Citation

Walker, Anders, Shotguns, Weddings, and Lunch Counters: Why Cultural Frames Matter to Constitutional Law (August 19, 2010). Florida State University Law Review, Vol. 38, p. 345, 2011, Saint Louis U. Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2010-25, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1661981

Anders Walker (Contact Author)

Saint Louis University - School of Law ( email )

100 N. Tucker Blvd.
St. Louis, MO 63101
United States

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