On Thursday, September 28, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals
officially denied Washington D.C.’s request to rehear the cases of
Grace v. District of Columbia and
Wrenn v. District of Columbia.
These cases challenge Washington D.C.’s restrictive “good reason”
requirement (i.e., a special need beyond self-defense) for the issuance
of a CCW on the grounds that it violates the Second Amendment to the
United States Constitution. As a result of today’s decision, Washington
D.C. must either petition the United States Supreme Court to rehear the
case, or accept the fact that their “good reason” requirement is
unconstitutional.
Last July, a 3-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals issued
a decision
prohibiting Washington D.C. from enforcing its “good reason”
requirement. The law at issue requires law-abiding citizens who wish to
carry a firearm in public to first obtain a license, but also restricts
the issuance of licenses to those citizens who can show a specific,
documented need for self-defense—for example, by proving that they have
been previously attacked or have been receiving death threats.
As stated by the Court in its opinion, “history matters, and here it
favors the plaintiffs.” For in reading the Second Amendment, the Supreme
Court’s reasoning in
Heller, and early historical sources, the
Court concluded that “the individual right to carry common firearms
beyond the home for self-defense—even in densely populated areas, even
for those lacking special self-defense needs—falls within the core of
the Second Amendment’s protections.”
As a result, the Court ruled D.C.’s “good reason” requirement, which
requires individuals applying for a CCW in Washington D.C. to
demonstrate a special need beyond mere self-defense, unconstitutional.
Washington D.C. immediately petitioned the D.C. Circuit to rehear the
case by a larger “en banc” panel of judges, arguing that allowing
ordinary, law-abiding citizens to carry firearms—as is allowed in 42 of
the 50 states (including major cities like Chicago, Houston, Miami, and
Philadelphia)—would somehow “increase crime and cost lives.”
If that strategy sounds familiar to you, it is because that is exactly
what the California Attorney General did following a monumental
3-judge panel opinion in the NRA and CRPA supported case of
Peruta v. San Diego,
which held California’s restrictive “good cause” requirement
unconstitutional. This new D.C. court ruling seems to create a circuit
split that might cause the Supreme Court to pay closer attention to the
case, or a future legal challenge.
In today’s unanimous decision from the D.C. Circuit Court, not a single
judge dissented from denying Washington D.C.’s request for a rehearing.
Washington D.C. is now left with no choice but to amend its policies to
no longer require a “good reason” for the issuance of a CCW, or to
appeal the decision to the United States Supreme Court. Either course of
action has the potential to significantly change the legal landscape
regarding the right to carry both in California and across the nation.
Both the NRA and the CRPA, along with several prominent law enforcement groups, joined the
Grace plaintiffs in their fight for the right to carry as amicus curiae. To read the CRPA Foundation’s amicus brief, click
here. To read the NRA’s amicus brief, click
here.
“This ruling could have a tremendous positive impact on the ongoing
legal fight for the right to carry in California,” said CRPA President
and General Counsel Chuck Michel. “CRPA is proud to be working with NRA
in California and as an amicus in these D.C. cases, and looks forward to
using the courts to force bureaucrats and elitist politicians in
California to respect the right to bear arms for those law abiding gun
owners who choose to possess and carry firearms to defense themselves or
their family in public.”
To learn more about the
Grace case, as well as other important Second Amendment issues, make sure you are subscribed to
NRA and
CRPA email alerts. You can also view all of the court filings in the
Grace case at
http://michellawyers.com/grace-v-district-of-columbia/. And be sure to visit the NRA-ILA California webpage at
www.standandfightCalifornia.com and CRPA’s webpage at
www.CRPA.org.
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