Lawyers for the gun owners argued that “the right of the people to keep and bear arms” set out in the 2nd Amendment is “incorporated” into the 14th Amendment and thereby applies to states and localities.

Lawyers on both sides of the dispute say the gun-rights case revives a once-fierce debate over how to read the Bill of Rights.

Since the 1st Amendment begins with the words, “Congress shall make no law respecting” such matters as an “establishment of religion” or “abridging the freedom of speech,” it was understood originally to limit only Congress and the national government. The same was true of the other parts of Bill of Rights.

After the Civil War, the 14th Amendment was added to the Constitution, and it says a state may not “abridge the privileges and immunities” of citizens nor deprive any person of “liberty…without due process of law.”