Once again, Gavin Newsom’s California has drawn the ire of the Trump Justice Department, this time over a restrictive firearms carry scheme that the Feds believe is unconstitutional.
The Justice Department has sued San Jose, California, and its police department over the city’s nearly $1,600 fee for concealed-carry permits, arguing that the charge places an unconstitutional burden on residents seeking to exercise their Second Amendment rights.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court in Northern California, challenges San Jose’s $1,591 application fee for a license to carry a concealed firearm.
The Justice Department says the fee is the highest of its kind in the country and far exceeds those charged by other major U.S. cities.
According to the federal complaint, Washington, D.C., charges $75 for a concealed-carry permit application, Boston charges $100, Chicago charges $150 and New York City charges $340 for a three-year license.
San Francisco charges $144, while nearby Berkeley, Santa Clara County and Alameda County also charge substantially less than San Jose.
San Jose raised its fee to $1,591 in June, an increase of nearly $300 over the amount charged roughly two and a half years earlier, according to the lawsuit.
California law allows local governments to recover reasonable costs associated with processing concealed-carry applications.
The Justice Department argues that San Jose’s fee goes beyond a reasonable administrative charge and effectively restricts access to a constitutional right.
“San Jose is a national outlier when it comes to burdening the exercise of fundamental rights. Its fees are abusive and violate the Second Amendment,” the lawsuit said.
The complaint relies heavily on the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, which recognized a constitutional right to carry firearms in public for self-defense while allowing states to maintain objective licensing systems.
The court also cautioned that permitting regimes could become unconstitutional if excessive fees prevent ordinary citizens from exercising that right.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said the right to bear arms should not depend on a person’s ability to pay unusually high government fees.
“You don’t need a law degree to recognize that charging a fee several times higher than the cost of the firearm itself is illogical, and an unconstitutional attempt to impede Americans’ Second Amendment rights,” Dhillon said Wednesday in announcing the lawsuit, the Washington Times reported.
The department is asking a federal judge to block San Jose from enforcing the current fee structure.
San Jose has defended the charge, saying the $1,591 figure represents the city’s full cost of processing concealed-carry applications rather than an attempt to discourage gun ownership.
City Attorney Susana Alcala Wood has also said the federal government misunderstood how the fee is collected, noting that applicants do not necessarily pay the entire amount at the beginning of the process.
She said that the process takes six-and-a-half hours of staff time to process an application, which accounts for more than $1,200 of the fee.
She also said that the city has reduced the amount of staff time, which used to be eight hours.
“Contrary to your assertions, a department looking to erect barriers to the exercise of a Constitutional right does not go out of its way to make its own process more efficient,” she wrote.
The case is the latest Second Amendment enforcement action undertaken by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, which now has a dedicated section focused on alleged violations of gun rights by state and local governments.
The lawsuit will require the court to determine whether San Jose’s fee reflects permissible administrative costs or whether, as the Justice Department argues, its size makes it an unconstitutional barrier to carrying a firearm for self-defense.
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