BELLEVUE, WA – The announcement by Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon that the Justice Department has filed an amicus brief in the case of Rhode v. Bonta, challenging California’s background check requirement for ammunition purchases, has been greeted with delight by the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb noted how this amicus submission strongly reinforces DOJ’s previously-announced commitment to protect the Second Amendment. The plaintiffs won at the District Court level, and again before a three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last July. It is now up for an en banc hearing before a full panel of judges in March.
“I can energetically say ‘Welcome Aboard’ to Assistant Attorney Dhillon and her colleagues,” Gottlieb stated. “The more, the merrier!”
CCRKBA, along with the Second Amendment Foundation and Second Amendment Law Center, has also submitted an amicus brief in the case. Likewise, Gottlieb added, a coalition of Republican attorneys general representing 25 states, along with the Arizona Legislature, have submitted their own amicus brief in this important case. He said it is gratifying that so much legal momentum is on the side of California’s beleaguered gun owners.
“The significance of Justice Department interest in the California case cannot be overstated,” Gottlieb emphasized. “This would never have happened under the previous administration, where the attorney general was clearly hostile to the Second Amendment. While some have lately criticized the DOJ and Attorney General Pam Bondi, we understand that righting all the wrongs heaped upon the Second Amendment over the past four or five decades cannot happen overnight.
“California is a major battlefield in the fight to restore the Second Amendment to its full measure,” he continued. “Defeating restrictive Golden State gun laws will send a message across the country that infringing on the Second Amendment no longer passes the smell test.
“California’s tradition of eroding Second Amendment rights is on a collision course with the U.S. Constitution,” Gottlieb observed. “It’s gratifying to have an administration coming in on the right side of this fight.”