DOJ arming with Second Amendment lawyers to take on tranche of state gun control laws

Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, says her office’s goal is to have all state regulations that are inconsistent with pro-Second Amendment cases be struck down, settled or withdrawn by the time she leaves her post.

“I’m hiring up and staffing up in our Second Amendment section,” Ms. Dhillon said on Dana Loesch’s “The Dana Show” recently. “And so if anyone watching this as a lawyer who’s passionate about these issues, or they’re passionate about them in general, we can train them up for these issues, but we’ve actually hired some great career lawyers here who come from the Second Amendment community, and National Association of Gun Rights lawyers joined our team this week.”

One is Texas Gun Rights Board Chairman Barry Arrington.

“We’re really excited to have that expertise on board,” Ms. Dhillon said on the radio show. “We want to develop that expertise, because when this administration is done, we’d like to have a whole cadre of lawyers who are trained in enforcing these laws all over the country.”

She provided an update on the Justice Department’s position in several gun cases across states and territories.

In December, the Civil Rights Division sued the Virgin Islands Police Department, alleging that its gun-permitting process violates the Second Amendment through excessive delays, “proper cause” requirements and mandatory home inspections.

The suit says the VIPD illegally restricts gun ownership, prompting proposed local legislation to reform licensing, create 90-day processing limits and eliminate “good moral character” clauses.

“They have to respond by a certain date. They have responded. We’re now going forward with litigation. Similar things are happening in some of our other cases,” Ms. Dhillon said.

“For example, we’re in discovery in our California case challenging the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department really slow rolling, like three-year waits to get your permit over there,” she said.

“And Massachusetts has a law. We just sued Massachusetts, and they just moved to dismiss our case. Massachusetts makes it a requirement for gun manufacturers or whoever’s trying to get guns on the permitted list to apply for each one separately, and then they have to go through this process, and it’s just crazy.”

In Hawaii, Ms. Dhillon’s office filed an amicus brief in the Wolford v. Lopez Supreme Court case, argued in January, which is related to a 2023 law that bans concealed-carry permit holders from carrying firearms on private property open to the public unless the owner expressly consents.

“They are effectively trying to ban people from being able to practically carry their firearms all day by having a presumption that you’re not allowed to carry it on private property, which is opposite of the law in the United States generally, in presumption,” Ms. Dhillon said.

The District of Columbia is also facing legal scrutiny from the DOJ on gun rights. Ms. Dhillon said her office has sued the District because it has a categorical ban on “assault rifles.”

“So I cannot have an AR-15 legally in D.C. We’ve challenged that and hope to be able to resolve that case as well for all D.C. residents,” she said.

When asked about the enormous gun control package sent to the desk of Virginia Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger, Ms. Dhillon said her office is monitoring it and presumes she will sign the bills and that the Justice Department will challenge them, along with gun organizations that have prepped their own lawsuits.

Other gun cases being monitored, Ms. Dhillon said, are in Colorado, New Jersey and New York.

“With each of these cases, these states are trying to kind of pocket veto the ability of people trying to enjoy the rights that the Supreme Court has guaranteed to us or announced that we’re entitled to under the Second Amendment, under natural law, even I believe Bruen, Heller and other decisions.”

Ms. Dhillon predicts some clarity will come soon on where the Supreme Court stands on AR-15 type firearms.

“We don’t have a national ruling as yet from the Supreme Court on AR-15s. We do have some very good hints. Semiautomatic rifles, generally, which are the most popular types of rifles in the United States, we have very good language from Justice [Clarence] Thomas on that,” she said.

Ms. Dhillon went to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals half a year ago and argued that Illinois’ “assault weapons” ban is unconstitutional, based on the Supreme Court’s earlier Heller and Bruen decisions.