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We’ve reported lately how the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) seems to have a somewhat schizophrenic attitude when it comes to supporting the Second Amendment. On one hand, the DOJ claims to be doing everything it can to restore Americans’ 2A rights. On the other hand, DOJ attorneys will defiantly argue in support of an obviously unconstitutional infringement.
In late November, the Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) and Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) lambasted the DOJ for trying to limit a critical Second Amendment court ruling.
After a court ruled that the nationwide ban on concealed carry in post offices is unconstitutional, the DOJ filed a motion to limit the scope of the injunction to only the named individual plaintiffs and to members of SAF and its partner organizations, but only to those who were members when the complaint was originally filed and who have been identified and verified. In other words, the government wants to keep the ban intact for the rest of America’s lawful gun owners.
“The critical thing to remember here is that the government is fighting tooth and nail to continue enforcing an unconstitutional law against as many people as possible,” SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut said. “The DOJ’s position that it would be ‘impossible’ for it to know who was protected by the injunction without a membership list is just plain silly. If officials want to know if someone found to be carrying at a post office is a SAF member, they can simply ask.”
Less than a week later, Reuters published information about a leaked DOJ plan to expand gun-rights protections with a new office in its civil rights division dedicated to enforcing the U.S. constitutional right to bear arms. The office, called the Second Amendment Rights Section, is expected to open on December 4 and will be dedicated to investigating local laws or policies that limit gun rights, something the Trump Administration has promised since its first week in office.
Such a positive move by the DOJ would benefit all lawful gun owners and the Second Amendment. And there’s no doubt that gun-rights organizations will welcome the news with open arms.
The same week as that announcement, the DOJ filed an amicus brief in support of the petitioners in the Supreme Court challenge to Hawaii’s extremely restrictive gun laws. The DOJ’s brief asserts that Hawaii’s restriction serves an improper purpose and effectively negates the Second Amendment protection of the right to bear arms.
The brief also argues that firearm restrictions must advance a valid purpose and cannot unduly burden an American’s fundamental right. The brief criticizes Hawaii’s law for being designed to achieve an invalid goal, effectively preventing public carry of arms by leveraging private property rules.
Of course, the DOJ is correct on all of those points. It’s just hard to understand how the agency can be so anti-gun one week, then take extreme pro-gun positions.
Ultimately, this weird DOJ practice of supporting the Second Amendment in some cases and vehemently attacking it in others puts both the Trump Administration and pro-gun rights groups in a quandary. The sooner the DOJ can get all its lawyers on the same page, fully supporting the Second Amendment, the less harm it will do to the Trump presidency.
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