A federal district judge upheld the Maryland 2013 Firearms Safety Act which bans (i) so-called “assault weapons” and (ii) so-called “large-capacity magazines” that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition.  The district judge first acknowledged that the Maryland Act was an “infringement” on Second Amendment rights, but upheld the law anyway, in utter disregard of the Second Amendment text commanding that those rights “shall not be infringed.” Read More

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Johnson is a firearms case involving the issue of whether mere possession of an unregistered short-barreled shotgun qualifies as a “violent felony” under the Armed Career Criminal Act.  The definition of violent felony includes crimes that run the serious risk of injuring another. Read More

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Shew involves a Second Amendment challenge to Connecticut’s recent ban on so-called “assault weapons” and so-called “high-capacity magazines.” Read More

The case involved a Second Amendment challenge to New Jersey’s concealed carry laws.  New Jersey concealed carry permits are rarely (if ever) issued unless one belongs to the government and politically powerful ruling class.  The lower federal courts upheld the laws, and New Jersey gun owners filed a petition for certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court. Read More

The Quinn case involves both the Second and Fourth Amendments, relating to a no-knock raid by the police.  Police executed a warrant to search John Quinn’s home, looking for drugs owned by his son who lived there.  Rather than honor the age-old practice of knocking on the door and announcing themselves, the police battered down Quinn’s door, shooting him when he understandably reached for his handgun to defend himself from what he thought was a burglary.  The police justified the no-knock raid solely because they believed that Quinn owned firearms. Read More

This case arises under the so-called Lautenburg Amendment of 1997, amending the Gun Control Act of 1968.  The government argued for an expansive definition of what constitutes a Misdemeanor Crime of Domestic Violence, under which a person who engages in offensive touching, pushing, or even spitting in the context of a domestic relationship meets the federal requirement of “physical force.”  The penalty for such an act is a lifetime ban on firearms ownership, and even innocent efforts to purchase or possess a firearm can result in the person becoming a felon. Read More

Abramski is a Second Amendment case challenging ATF’s use of its “straw purchase” doctrine to convict one eligible person who bought a firearm for another eligible person.  When buying a gun, a person is asked on the ATF Form 4473 if he is the “actual buyer,” even though federal law only requires him to be the “transferee.”  Congress never actually criminalized “straw purchases,” and it is not up to ATF or the courts to create new crimes in order to fill in the perceived blanks.  The government argued that the gun dealer was “required” to keep information about the “actual buyer,” but federal law requires him to keep only the identity of the “transferee” — the person physically present to obtain the firearm. Read More

This case was a Second Amendment challenge to the federal ban on firearm purchases from gun dealers by adults who are 18-20 years old. Read More

Woollard is a Second Amendment case challenging Maryland’s “good and substantial reason” requirement for obtaining a license to carry a concealed weapon.  The district court held that the “core” of the Second Amendment applies only inside the home, and thus applied only an “intermediate scrutiny” analysis. Read More

Rosemond is a case challenging a conviction for “aiding and abetting” the use of a firearm in the commission of a crime, when the defendant had no idea his accomplice even had a gun, much less would use it. Read More

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On August 6, 2012 an amicus brief was filed on behalf of CLDEF in the case of Raymond Woollard, et al. v. Denis Gallagher, et al. in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in support of plaintiffs-appellees and affirmance. Read More

On November 15, 2010 an amicus brief was filed on behalf of CLDEF in the case of Steven Skoien v. United States in the United States Supreme Court in support of petitioner Skoien. Read More

On July 30, 2010 an amicus brief was filed on behalf of CLDEF in the case of Dick Anthony Heller v. District of Columbia in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Our amicus brief was the only amicus brief filed in support of the challenge by appellant Dick Heller and others to portions of the D.C. Code that (i) require registration of all firearms, (ii) prohibit registration of so-called “assault weapons” and (iii) prohibit possession of so-called “high capacity” magazines. Read More

On November 23, 2009, an amicus brief was filed on behalf of CLDEF in the case of Otis McDonald v. City of Chicago in the United States Supreme Court in support of petitioners’ challenge to an ordinance banning handguns in Chicago. The amicus brief argues that the Chicago handgun ban unconstitutionally abridges petitioners’ right to keep and bear arms, a privilege or immunity belonging to them as United States citizens protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. It also explains that no wholesale change in the Supreme Court’s Fourteenth Amendment jurisprudence is required to rule that the Chicago ordinance unconstitutionally abridges petitioners’ right to keep and bear arms. Further, it asserts that incorporation of the right to keep and bear arms into the Due Process Clause would result in weak and potentially transitory protection of that right.

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