D.C. begins its gun law appeal
on Jul 17, 2007 at 2:09 pm
The District of Columbia’s local government began pressing its case on gun ownership rights in the Supreme Court on Monday, arguing that the case is “uniquely important and complex” and raises “extraordinarily important issues.” Those assessments of the case were advanced as part of the city’s request for added time to file the petition for review. The application (docket 07A51) sought a 30-day extension — a request that attorneys for the challengers to a local handgun control law plan to oppose. Without an extension, the petition would be due Aug. 6.
The case (District of Columbia, et al., v. Heller, et al.) involves a March 9 ruling by the D.C. Circuit striking down parts of the city’s handgun control law as a violation of a Second Amendment individual right to have guns in one’s home. As Monday’s application noted, “the decision marks the first time in the Nation’s history that any appellate court has struck down a law as unconstitutional under the Second Amendment.”
The issues to be raised, the city said, “involve fundamental questions of how the Second Amendment should be interpreted and applied to the District’s longstanding legislative judgment on how best to protect District citizens from firearm-related death and injury. In recognition of the seriousness of these issues, the Court of Appeals stayed its mandate and four judges on the Court of Appeals would have granted rehearing en banc.”
The city said its lawyers needed more time to prepare the petition, because top officials of the city had only recently made the decision to appeal the case, and the city has recently retained outside lawyers to assist in the case and they need time to become familiar with it.
The local residents who filed the challenge to the city’s handgun law will join in urging the Supreme Court to hear and decide the case.
