FPC LAW RESEARCH & AMICUS DOCKET

See here for a comprehensive overview of active FPC Law lawsuits organized by jurisdiction/state.

Below are links to and information about some important amicus briefs to defend and advance YOUR RIGHTS.

POTENTIAL PLAINTIFFS: In order to challenge unconstitutional, unjust, and undesirable laws, we need individuals to participate in our efforts as plaintiffs. Please click here to use our Hotline form to report possible civil rights violations or let us know you'd like to get involved in a lawsuit.

FPC 2A Legal Tracker: Track cases and important filings.

RESEARCH

Click here for Joseph Greenlee's SSRN author page listing of more research/articles

SYMPOSIUMS & EVENTS

AMICUS BRIEFS

FEDERAL COURTS

U.S. Supreme Court

July 1, 2022 - United States Supreme Court

March 25, 2022 - United States Supreme Court

September 3, 2021 - United States Supreme Court

July 20, 2021 - United States Supreme Court

July 13, 2021 - United States Supreme Court

June 25, 2021 - United States Supreme Court

May 17, 2021 - United States Supreme Court

April 9, 2021 - United States Supreme Court

March 24, 2021 - United States Supreme Court

March 2, 2021 - United States Supreme Court

February 3, 2021 - United States Supreme Court

January 28, 2021 - United States Supreme Court

January 21, 2021 - United States Supreme Court

January 15, 2021 - United States Supreme Court

October 1, 2020 - United States Supreme Court

  • Torres v. United States - Brief filed in support of Petitioner's Writ of Certiorari to restore nonviolent felon's 2nd Amendment rights
  • FPC: Supreme Court Should Decide Non-Violent Felons Have Second Amendment Rights, Lifetime Ban Should Be Struck Down
  • Challenges the federal prohibition on firearm ownership by felons, as it applies to nonviolent felons. Specifically, Mr. Torres was convicted of a felony and is subject to a lifetime firearms prohibition based on a DUI offense. After the Ninth Circuit upheld this firearms ban earlier this year, Mr. Torres petitioned the Supreme Court to hear his case.

July 24, 2020 - United States Supreme Court

  • Brief in support of Petitioner Zoie H.
  • Case of Zoie H. v. Nebraska (Supreme Court no. 19-1418)
  • FPC brief shows why Nebraska’s treatment of the Second Amendment through its law depriving gun rights without a jury trial contradicts the Constitution's text, history, and tradition 
  • FPC was joined by FPF and fellow amici California Gun Rights Foundation, Madison Society Foundation, Second Amendment Foundation, Independence Institute, and Second Amendment law professors and scholars Nicholas Johnson (Fordham), Donald Kilmer (Lincoln), George Mocsary (Wyoming), Joseph Olson (Mitchell Hamline), Glenn Reynolds (Tennessee), and Gregory Wallace (Campbell).
  • Related news release here

March 6, 2020 - United States Supreme Court 

December 19, 2019 - United States Supreme Court 

October 30, 2019 - United States Supreme Court

  • FPC Brief in Support of Petitioners (PDF)
  • FPC was joined on the brief by Firearms Policy Foundation, California Gun Rights Foundation, Second Amendment Foundation, and Madison Society  Foundation
  • Malpasso v. Pallozzi is a constitutional challenge to Maryland’s “good and substantial reason” requirement for a firearm carry permit

October 24, 2019 - United States Supreme Court

  • FPC Brief in Support of Petitioners (PDF)
  • FPC was joined on the brief by Firearms Policy Foundation, Cato Institute, Firearms Policy Coalition, California Gun Rights Foundation, Second Amendment Foundation, Citizens Committee For The Right To Keep And Bear Arms, Jews For The Preservation Of Firearms Ownership, Madison Society  Foundation, and Independence Institute
  • Worman v. Healey is a constitutional challenge to Massachusetts' ban on "assault weapons" and "high capacity" firearm magazines

October 2, 2019 - United States Supreme Court

  • FPC Brief in Support of Petitioners (PDF)
  • Guedes v. BATFE is a challenge to Chevron deference and the Trump Administration's unlawful executive fiat ban on "bump-stock type" devices

October 1, 2019 - United States Supreme Court

September 4, 2019 - United States Supreme Court

  • Soto v. Remington - Brief in support of petition for writ of certiorari (PDF); related News Release
  • FPC and its fellow amici filed a brief explaining that “the exercise of the right to keep and bear arms has always had a relationship to military use of arms,” hence the Second Amendment’s prefatory clause preventing the elimination of the militia. Indeed, throughout the colonial and founding eras, government mandated that most of the free population (often including women) acquire and keep the arms most suitable for militia service.
  • The brief provides the history and purpose of the PLCAA, and describes the decades of abusive lawsuits brought by anti-gun cities and states intended to bankrupt the firearms industry. The brief draws parallels between the abusive suits designed to destroy the firearms industry and the abusive suits brought by civil rights opponents throughout the Civil Rights movement, designed to destroy free speech in the Jim Crow South. Just as the Supreme Court halted the abusive lawsuits against the press in the 1960s, Congress enacted the PLCAA to end the abusive lawsuits against the firearms industry. 
  • FPC’s coalition amicus brief encourages the Supreme Court to restore the PLCAA’s protections of fundamental, individual human rights.
  • FPC is joined by amici law professors and Second Amendment scholars Randy Barnett (Georgetown), Royce Barondes (Missouri), Robert Cottrol (George Washington), Nicholas Johnson (Fordham), Joyce Malcolm (George Mason), George Mocsary (Southern Illinois), Joseph Olson (Mitchell Hamline), Glenn Reynolds (Tennessee), Eugene Volokh (UCLA), and Gregory Wallace (Campbell), as well as advocacy organizations Firearms Policy Foundation, Cato Institute, Independence Institute, Madison Society Foundation, and California Gun Rights Foundation (formerly The Calguns Foundation).

August 1, 2019 - United States Supreme Court

May 14, 2019 - United States Supreme Court

  • NYSRPA, et al. v. City of New York (merits stage) amicus brief
  • FPC, FPF, and CGF argue that the "Constitution itself has done the categorizing and those rights covered ‘shall not be infringed.’ Period," and that so-called “tiers” of scrutiny used by courts are a “wholly judicial invention” that “should be viewed with skepticism when applied to conduct directly protected by the constitutional text.”
  • Related news release HERE

Feb. 4, 2019 - United States Supreme Court

  • Pena v. Horan Supreme Court (cert stage) amicus brief
  • Brief filed at the United States Supreme Court in support of a Second Amendment challenge to California's handgun Roster and microstamping requirements that prevent law-abiding people from buying handguns that are in common use for lawful purposes throughout the United States

Dec. 20, 2018 - United States Supreme Court

  • Mance v. Whitaker amicus brief
  • Brief filed at the United States Supreme Court in support of a Second Amendment challenge to federal gun control laws that prohibit law-abiding people from buying handguns outside of their state of primary residence

Oct. 26, 2017 - United States Supreme Court

Jan. 15, 2015 - United States Supreme Court

Jan. 15, 2015 - United States Supreme Court

First Circuit 

Second Circuit 

Third Circuit 

December 28, 2021 - Third Circuit Court of Appeals

September 22, 2020 - Third Circuit Court of Appeals

  • ANJRPC v. Attorney General of New Jersey Grewal - Brief in Support of Rehearing En Banc
  • Lawsuit challenging New Jersey's "large capacity" magazine ban
  • FPC's coalition brief argues that American history and tradition prove that the Second Amendment protects so-called "large-capacity" magazines, here.

September 1, 2020 - Third Circuit Court of Appeals

  • Amicus Brief cited and argument adopted in dissenting judge's argument
  • Third Circuit upheld NJ magazine capacity ban: ruling
  • February 03, 2020: Brief in Support of Appellants
  • Related news release here.

July 10, 2020 - 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals

  • Brief in support of appellants in Drummond v. Township of Robinson
  • Drummond argued that the District Court improperly applied heightened scrutiny again, and emphasizing the court’s animus towards the right to keep and bear arms, asked for the case to be reassigned to a different judge on remand.
  • FPC and FPF elaborated on the District Court’s poor treatment of the Second Amendment, highlighting the many ways in which the court treated the Second Amendment differently than other enumerated rights.
  • Brief was authored by Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) Director of Research, Joseph Greenlee, lead by FPC, and supported/joined by Firearms Policy Foundation (FPF) and Madison Society Foundation (MSF)

February 3, 2020 - 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals

  • ANJRPC v. Attorney General of New Jersey Grewal - Brief in Support of Appellants
  • FPC's coalition brief argues that New Jersey's ban on so-called "large-capacity" magazines violates the Second Amendment.
  • FPC was joined by amici Professors of Second Amendment Law, Firearms Policy Foundation (FPF), California Gun Rights Foundation (CGF), Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), Madison Society Foundation (MSF), and Independence Institute (II)

July 11, 2019 - Third Circuit Court of Appeals

July 1, 2019 - Third Circuit Court of Appeals

June 27, 2019 - Third Circuit Court of Appeals

Fourth Circuit 

Fifth Circuit

August 1, 2022 - Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals

March 16, 2021 - Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals

Nov. 5, 2015  - Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals

Sixth Circuit

August 2, 2021 - Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals

June 25, 2019 - Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals

Seventh Circuit 

May 23, 2022 - Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals

May 16, 2022 - Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals

July 15, 2021 - Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals

Eighth Circuit

Ninth Circuit 

August 28, 2020 - Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

  • Teter v. Connors Amicus brief filed
  • Challenging Hawai'i state law
  • Butterfly knives are not "dangerous and unusual"
  • Butterfly knives should be covered by 2nd Amendment protections

August 10, 2020 - Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

June 4, 2020 - Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (en banc)

March 19, 2020 - Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

  • United States v. Israel Torres - Brief of Amici Curiae Firearms Policy Coalition, Firearms Policy Foundation, Madison Society Foundation, California Gun Rights Foundation, and Second Amendment Foundation in Support of Appellant’s Petition for Rehearing En Banc

February 3, 2020 - Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

  • Rupp v. Becerra - Brief in Support of Appellants
  • FPC's coalition brief argues that California's so-called "assault rifles" statute violates the Second Amendment.
  • FPC was joined by amici Firearms Policy Foundation (FPF), California Gun Rights Foundation (CGF), Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), Madison Society Foundation (MSF), and Independence Institute (II)

September 23, 2019 - Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

  • Duncan v. Becerra - Brief in Support of Appellees and Affirmance (PDF); related News Release
  • FPC's coalition brief argues that so-called "large-capacity" magazines are inherent components of functional firearms, that such magazines are "in common use" for lawful purposes, and are constitutionally protected.
  • FPC was joined by amici individual gun owners: William Wiese, Jeremiah Morris, Lance Cowley, Sherman Macaston, Clifford Flores, L.Q. Dang, Frank Federau, Alan Normandy, and Todd Nielsen, all plaintiffs in the Wiese v. Becerra magazine ban challenge
  • FPC was also joined by amici Firearms Policy Foundation (FPF), California Gun Rights Foundation (CGF), Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), Armed Equality (AE), San Diego County Gun Owners (SDCGO), Orange County Gun Owners (OCGO), Riverside County Gun Owners (RCGO), and California County Gun Owners (CCGO)

June 21, 2019 - Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

  • Cato Institute and FPC file joint amicus brief in the appeal of U.S. v. Bronsozian, a case concerning a conviction for failing to pay a tax for a "machinegun" that cannot be paid due to other statutes, arguing that as the Supreme Court has repeatedly found, a tax must be a tax. For a government of enumerated powers to function, those powers must be clearly defined. The fact that a case involves guns—even unpopular guns—is not a reason to smudge the taxing power into a grant to do whatever the government wants.

Nov. 19, 2018 - Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

Dec. 24, 2014 -Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

Tenth Circuit 

February 15, 2022 - United States District Court for the District of Colorado

October 13, 2020 - Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals

  • Aposhian v. Barr: bump stock ban appeal to Tenth Circuit en banc panel
  • FPC Amicus Brief urging the Tenth Circuit to protect due process and enforce separation of powers by applying Rule of Lenity: here
  • Oral arguments

June 13, 2019 - Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals

Eleventh Circuit 

D.C. Circuit 

STATE COURTS

Colorado

June 3, 2019 - Colorado Supreme Court

Georgia

February 10, 2021 - Georgia Court of Appeals

Idaho

February 23, 2021 - Idaho Supreme Court

  • U.S. v. Gutierrez: FPC filed a brief in support of Mr. Gutierrez, arguing that under the Idaho Constitution, individuals convicted of misdemeanors cannot be prohibited from keeping and bearing arms.
  • Amicus Brief
  • Press Release

Illinois

Maine

December 2, 2019 - Maine Supreme Judicial Court (sitting as the Law Court)

  • FPC Brief in Support of Appellant (PDF), joined by Firearms Policy Foundation (FPF)
  • In Maine v. Tonini, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court asked three questions:
    • Can a person who possesses marijuana be determined to be "an unlawful user of or . . . addicted to any controlled substance" within the meaning of the firearms possession prohibition in 15 M.R.S. § 393(1)(G)?
    • What effect, if any, does an acquittal on a charge of furnishing a scheduled drug have on the State's ability to establish that the defendant was prohibited from possessing a firearm pursuant to section 393(1)(G)?
    • What is the test for evaluating the constitutionality of section 393 in light of the United States Supreme Court's decisions in District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S.570 (2008), and McDonald v. City of Chicago, 561 U.S. 742 (2010)?
  • FPC argued that: 1) Federal precedent indicates that persons similarly situated to the Appellant cannot be determined to be “unlawful users of or . . . addicted to any controlled substance” within the meaning of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(3); and, 2) The appropriate test for assessing the Section 393’s constitutionality is an examination of the constitutional text as informed by history, tradition, and public meaning.

Michigan

March 5, 2021 - Michigan Supreme Court

Pennsylvania

May 31, 2019 - Pennsylvania Supreme Court

Vermont

February 22, 2021 - Vermont Supreme Court

April 24, 2020 - Vermont Supreme Court

  • FPC authored and filed a brief in State v. Misch at the Vermont Supreme Court
  • The brief, joined by Firearms Policy Foundation, the Cato Institute, and Independence Institute, argues that Vermont’s history and tradition proves that so-called “large capacity” magazines are protected by the Vermont Constitution, and that banning such magazines makes bad policy because they are common and effective arms for defense of self and others.

Click Here for FPC Law Cases