In this reprint from 1998, Halbrook (Independent Institute), a legal scholar and attorney specializing in the Second Amendment, examines the origins of the Fourteenth Amendment in the Reconstruction era, and related legislation designed to protect slaves, and how these civil rights laws were implemented. He draws on legislative debates, Congressional hearings, newspapers, and legal treatises to trace the adoption of and interrelationship between the Fourteenth Amendment and civil rights legislation, with a focus on the right to bear arms. He chronologically investigates various records and legislation, as well as contemporary public opinion, to understand the process of the adoption of the Civil Rights Act, the Freedman's Bureau Act, and the Fourteenth Amendment. He also discusses conventions in the Southern states that were required to draft constitutions consistent with the amendment; Supreme Court jurisprudence of the Second and Fourteenth Amendments, including Ku Klux Klan trials and the Cruikshank case; and twentieth century developments regarding the incorporation of Bill of Rights guarantees in the Fourteenth Amendment, the Court's pronouncements on the Second Amendment, and the role of the Freedmen's Bureau Act. Distributed by Independent Publishers Group. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)