Parker v. District of Columbia

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Shelly Parker, et al. v. District of Columbia and Adrian M. Fenty

United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit

Argued December 7, 2006

Decided March 9, 2007

Full case name:	Shelly Parker, Dick Anthony Heller, Tom G. Palmer, Gillian St. Lawrence, Tracey Ambeau and George Lyon v. District of Columbia and Adrian M. Fenty, Mayor of the District of Columbia
Citations:	2007 WL 702084
Docket #:	04-7041
Prior history:	Lawsuit dismissed, 311 F.Supp.2d 103 (D.D.C. 2004)
Subsequent history:

Holding

The statutes as applied are unconstitutional.

Court membership

Circuit Judges Karen L. Henderson, Thomas B. Griffith and Laurence H. Silberman

Case opinions

Majority by: Silberman

Joined by: Griffith

Dissent by: Henderson

Laws applied

U.S. Const. Amend. 2; D.C. Code §§ 7-2502.02(a)(4), 22-4504

Shelly Parker, et al. v. District of Columbia and Adrian M. Fenty is a case in which the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit became the first federal appeals court in the United States to strike down a gun control law based on the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, and the second to interpret the Second Amendment as protecting an individual right to bear arms. (The first was United States v. Emerson, cert. denied, (2001)).

The 2-1 decision in Parker struck down a portion of a the Firearms Control Regulations Act of 1975, a local law of the District of Columbia that restricts residents from owning handguns, automatic firearms, and high-capacity semi-automatic firearms, and prohibits possession of unregistered firearms.^[1]

1 Summary of Ruling
2 References
- 2.1 Other references
3 External links

[edit] Summary of Ruling

The Court addresses whether appellants have standing to sue for declaratory and injunctive relief in section II (pages 5 to 12), and it concludes that Heller (who applied for a handgun permit but was denied) has standing.

The Court's own summary of its substantive ruling on the right protected by the second amendment is given on page 46 (at the end of section III): "To summarize, we conclude that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms. That right existed prior to the formation of the new government under the Constitution and was premised on the private use of arms for activities such as hunting and self-defense, the latter being understood as resistance to either private lawlessness or the depredations of a tyrannical government (or a threat from abroad). In addition, the right to keep and bear arms had the important and salutary civic purpose of helping to preserve the citizen militia. The civic purpose was also a political expedient for the Federalists in the First Congress as it served, in part, to placate their Antifederalist opponents. The individual right facilitated militia service by ensuring that citizens would not be barred from keeping the arms they would need when called forth for militia duty. Despite the importance of the Second Amendment’s civic purpose, however, the activities it protects are not limited to militia service, nor is an individual’s enjoyment of the right contingent upon his or her continued or intermittent enrollment in the militia."