Carl T. Bogus

Professor Bogus has written extensively about gun control and the Second Amendment, torts and products liability, and political ideology, among other topics. He is the author of three books – Madison’s Militia: The Hidden History of the Second Amendment (Oxford University Press 2023), Buckley: William F. Buckley Jr. and the Rise of American Conservatism (Bloomsbury Press 2011), and Why Lawsuits Are Good for America: Big Business, Disciplined Democracy and the Common Law (NYU Press 2001). He is also the editor of The Second Amendment in Law and History: Historians and Constitutional Scholars on the Right to Bear Arms (The New Press 2001). In addition to books and professional journals, his writings have appeared in the New York Times, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Washington Times, Providence Journal; The Nation, American Prospect, and American Conservative magazines; CNN's website, and National Review Online, among other venues.

He is especially well known for his thesis that James Madison drafted the Second Amendment to assure his constituents in Virginia and the South generally that the federal government could not disarm the state militia, on which the South relied for slave control. That thesis is most recently and fully set forth in his book Madison’s Militia.

Professor Bogus is presently at work on a long-term project challenging the current paradigm in antitrust law. Professor Bogus argues that antitrust law should not merely be concerned with consumer welfare but also with consolidated power. His first two law review articles in that project – “The New Road to Serfdom: The Curse of Bigness (2015) and the Failure of Antitrust” (and "Books and Olive Oil: Why Antitrust Must Deal with Consolidated Corporate Power" (2019) – were both published by the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform.

His most recent article about torts – “Why Indiana Harbor is the Worst Torts Decision in American History” – is forthcoming in the Connecticut Law Review. 

Professor Bogus received the Ross Essay Award from the American Bar Association and the Public Service Achievement Award from Common Cause of Rhode Island.

Books

Madison's Militia: The Hidden History of the Second Amendment (Oxford University Press, forthcoming spring 2023).

“The Hard, Simple Truth about Gun Control,” in Guns in Law, edited by Austin Sarat, Lawrence Douglas, and Martha Merrill Umphrey (Amherst, Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Press, 2019)(Amherst College Series in Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought)

"Fighting Over the Conservative Banner," in American Conservatism: NOMOS LVI (NOMOS - American Society for Political and Legal Philosophy), edited by Sanford V. Levinson, Joel Parker, and Melissa S. Williams (New York: NYU Press, 2016).

Buckley: William F. Buckley, Jr. and the Rise of American Conservativism (New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2011)

Why Lawsuits are Good For America: Disciplined Democracy, Big Business, and the Common Law (New York: NYU Press, 2001)

The Second Amendment in Law and History: Historians and Constitutional Scholars on the Right to Bear Arms (New York: New Press, 2001) (Ed.)

Articles

Why Indiana Harbor is the Worst Torts Decision in American History, 55 Connecticut Law Review Issue No. 3 (forthcoming 2023).

Is This a Christian Nation? | An Introduction, 26 Roger Williams University Law Review 237 (2021)

Books and Olive Oil: Why Antitrust Must Deal with Consolidated Corporate Power, 52 University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform 265 (2019)

The New Road to Serfdom: The Curse of Bigness and the Failure of Antitrust, 49 University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform 1 (2015)

Heller and Insurrectionism, 59 Syracuse Law Review 255 (2008)

Gun Control and America's Cities: Public Policy and Politics, 1 Albany Government Law Review 440 (2008)

Rescuing Burke, 72 Missouri Law Review 387 (2007)

Fear-Mongering Torts and the Exaggerated Death of Diving, 28 Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 17 (2004)

The Hidden History of the Second Amendment, 31 U.C. Davis Law Review 309 (1998)

The Third Revolution in Products Liability, 72 Chicago-Kent Law Review 3 (1996)

The Death of an Honorable Profession, 71 Indiana Law Journal 911 (1996)