The one good thing for me about Trump.... SCOTUS.
- Thread starter Mntneer
- Start date
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of the Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has just issued a permanent injunction against the District’s “may issue” firearms licensing scheme, holding that the Second Amendment’s “core lawful purpose” of “self-defense” included the right to carry a firearm beyond the home. The opinion, written by Judge Thomas B. Griffith, held in part:
[C]arrying [a firearm] beyond the home, even in populated areas, even without special need, falls within the [Second] Amendment’s coverage, indeed within its core….
[A]t a minimum, the Amendment’s core must protect carrying given the risks and needs typical of law-abiding citizens. That is a right that most D.C. residents can never exercise, by the law’s very design. In this way, the District’s regulation completely prohibits most residents from exercising the constitutional right to bear arms as viewed in the light cast by history and Heller I. And under Heller I, “complete prohibition
Bans on the ability of most citizens to exercise an enumerated right would have to flunk any judicial test that was appropriately written and applied, so we strike down the District’s law here apart from any particular balancing test.
The Appellate Court heard on two different cases challenging DC’s may issue regime: Wrenn v. D.C., which was backed by Alan Gottlieb’s Second Amendment Foundation, and Grace v. D.C.which was backed by the LGBT gun rights organization, Pink Pistols. Both plaintiffs had sought an injunction against enforcing the District’s “good reason” requirement for the issuance of firearms carry licenses. A lower court judge denied Wrenn’s request last March, but a different judge granted Grace’s request (but stayed the order pending appeal.) The DC Circuit combined the two matters and adjudicated them simultaneously.
More details about the case and when you can start applying for a D.C. carry license (note: the District *does* issue non-resident licenses) forthcoming.
