December 11, 2008 3:01PM # Doherty Book Review By [David Rittgers](https://www.cato.org/people/david-rittgers) --- SHARE There’s a review of [Brian Doherty](http://www.reason.com/staff/show/132.html)’s new book, [*Gun Control on Trial: Inside the Supreme Court Battle over the Second Amendment*](http://www.catostore.org/index.asp?fa=ProductDetails&method=cats&scid=47&pid=1441412), over at [McClatchy’s Washington Bureau](http://washingtonbureau.typepad.com/law/2008/12/lawyers-guns-and-literature.html). “\[T\]he book is a brisk read, and it has the kind of direct observation and insider detail that can help bring even a well-plumbed case back to life.” *Heller* continues to spur controversy in the legal community. Judge Harvie Wilkinson III of the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit [compared](http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract-id=1265118) it to *Roe v. Wade* as judicial intervention in an issue that should have been resolved by the political branches. Cato Associate Policy Analyst [David Kopel](https://www.cato.org/people/david-kopel) responded on the legal blog [The Volokh Conspiracy](http://volokh.com/posts/1228348957.shtml), making the point that, unlike abortion, the right to keep and bear arms is express in the Bill of Rights. The full paper, co-authored with Professor Nelson Lund of George Mason University School of Law, is available [here](http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1309714). ##### Related Tags [Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).