DC Government to Petition Supreme Court

The Mayor of Washington DC just announced that the city will ask the Supreme Court to reverse a landmark Second Amendment ruling from the DC Court of Appeals.


This is great news–as the whole idea of this lawsuit has been to get a good case up to the Supreme Court. Had DC officials not filed an appeal, they would have had to amend DC’s 30 year ban on guns, but they could have kept the case out of the Supreme Court. By filing an appeal, DC officials are hoping that the lower court will be reversed, but the risk is that the High Court will rule otherwise. For opponents of the DC firearm ban, it is nice to have a favorable precedent from the DC Court of Appeals–but it is even better to have a favorable precedent from the Supreme Court.


The ball is now with the Supreme Court. DC has decided to appeal but review by the High Court is hardly automatic. The Supreme Court declines to hear hundreds of cases every year. To hear a case, four justices must agree that a particular case ought to be heard. We will likely learn whether this case, Parker v. District of Columbia, will be reviewed when the Court reconvenes in early October, after its summer recess.


Background on the lawsuit here. Cato’s Second Amendment work is here.