Published September 17, 2026 at 1:05 PM ET · Updated September 17, 2026 at 8:52 PM ET
DOJ challenges California city's gun permit fee as unlawful barrier
1 independent outlet is covering this story, first reported here by WND. Verification: Watching (how we verify). Every headline links to the original reporting.
The Department of Justice has challenged a gun permit fee charged by a California city. The department argues that the fee is an unlawful barrier.
Patriot Watch first flagged this story 13 d ago, when WND reported it. So far this remains a single-source report. The most recent report came 13 d ago from WND.
⚖ The Constitutional Angle
McDonald makes the Second Amendment bind city governments, and Bruen held the Amendment protects carrying handguns publicly for self defense while requiring government to justify any regulation with the Nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation. The city must therefore defend its fee as consistent with that tradition. These cases do not directly settle how permit fees fare under Bruen's test.
McDonald v. City of Chicago, Illinois 561 U.S. 742 (2010)
Vote: 5-4 · Opinion: Alito
The Second Amendment right recognized in Heller is fully applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. A four-Justice plurality incorporated the right via the Due Process Clause as fundamental to the Nation's scheme of ordered liberty and deeply rooted in its history and tradition; Justice Thomas supplied the fifth vote via the Privileges or Immunities Clause. The Seventh Circuit's judgment upholding Chicago's and Oak Park's handgun bans was reversed and remanded.
New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Kevin P. Bruen, Superintendent of New York State Police 597 U.S. 1 (2022)
Vote: 6-3 · Opinion: Thomas
New York's requirement that applicants demonstrate 'proper cause' — a special need for self-protection distinguishable from the general community — to obtain an unrestricted public-carry license violates the Fourteenth Amendment by preventing law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defense needs from exercising their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms in public. The Court held the Second Amendment protects a right to carry handguns publicly for self-defense, and rejected the two-step means-end framework lower courts had applied after Heller.
Precedent facts from the PW Law Library — primary-source verified & independently audited
