U.S. Const. amend. VI: A Collection of Supreme Court Quotes, 1795-2010

Abstract

The Supreme Court's landmark decision in D.C. v. Heller introduced a novel, comma-dependent methodology of interpretation and applied it to the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. To the extent that different sources of constitutional text and the text actually quoted by the Court in opinions over the course of more than two centuries are inconsistent, this collection of quotations supports the proposition that a similar, comma-dependent construction of the Sixth Amendment is at least problematic.

This collection is the product of a Shepard's report out of LEXIS for Supreme Court cases citing the Sixth Amendment from 1851 to 2010, and a supplemental terms and connectors search for “const! /s amend! /s six!” restricted to January 1, 1790 to January 1, 1852. The collection does not include cases with citations in concurring and dissenting opinions alone (exclusion based on LEXIS’ explicit designation of references as “Cited in Concurring Opinion” and “Cited in Dissenting Opinion”). The cases' years, names, authors, and quotations of the Sixth Amendment text (if any) are included in a table format.

Keywords: Heller, Parker, Fell, Second Amendment, Sixth Amendment, quotes, quotations, comma, clauses, Constitution, interpretation