SAF sues New Mexico over legal resident alien CCW permits

jrosenberger · Apr 23, 2012

NEWS RELEASE
Second Amendment Foundation
12500 NE Tenth Place • Bellevue, WA 98005
(425) 454-7012 • FAX (425) 451-3959 • www.saf.org
SAF SUES NEW MEXICO OVER LAW BARRING CCW PERMITS FOR LEGAL RESIDENT ALIENS

For Immediate Release: 4/23/2012

BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation today filed a lawsuit in federal district court in New Mexico challenging that state’s prohibition on the issuance of concealed carry permits to legal resident aliens.

SAF filed the complaint in U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico on behalf of John W. Jackson, an Australian citizen who came to the United States with his wife, an American citizen, in 2007. He obtained permanent resident status in November 2008. They are represented by Albuquerque attorney Paul M. Kienzle, III and Glen Ellyn, Illinois attorney David Sigale. Named as defendants in the case, in their official capacities, are New Mexico Attorney General Gary King and Bill Hubbard, director of the Special Investigations of the New Mexico Department of Public Safety.

“Legal resident aliens in the United States should have the same personal protection rights as anyone,” noted SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb, “because criminals do not play favorites. Mr. Jackson is a productive member of his community, and his plight is shared by many legal alien residents.”

According to the SAF complaint, the laws of New Mexico completely prohibit resident legal aliens from the concealed carry of guns, in public, for the purpose of self-defense. In New Mexico, only citizens may have the benefit of an armed defense by concealed carry.

“Our lawsuit is firmly grounded in the recognition and incorporation of the Second Amendment that came with our Supreme Court victory in McDonald v. City of Chicago,” Gottlieb noted. “We also believe the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause renders the State’s ban on non-citizens obtaining a concealed carry permit to be unconstitutional. Mr. Jackson and others like him only seek to be treated the same as law-abiding citizens. The Second Amendment renders a ban such as that challenged in our action to be impermissible.

“We just won a similar case in Massachusetts,” he said, “and we will pursue this case with equal vigor.”

The lawsuit seeks to enjoin King and Hubbard from further enforcing the state ban on the issuance of concealed carry permits to non-citizens, and to declare that the law is null and void because it violates the Second Amendment’s right to keep and bear arms, and the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause.

The Second Amendment Foundation (www.saf.org) is the nation's oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 650,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control. In addition to the landmark McDonald v. Chicago Supreme Court Case, SAF has previously funded successful firearms-related suits against the cities of Los Angeles; New Haven, CT; New Orleans; Chicago and San Francisco on behalf of American gun owners, a lawsuit against the cities suing gun makers and numerous amicus briefs holding the Second Amendment as an individual right.

-END-

Great to see a quick follow up to the recent win in Massachusetts.

Inigoes · Apr 23, 2012

States should really start to pay attention and remove any unconstitutional laws

Maryland should be next because it has an emergency law similar to NC.

jrosenberger · Apr 23, 2012

Complaint attached.

press1280 · Apr 23, 2012

I'm going to go out on a limb and say NM fixes this before the courts force them to.

krucam · Apr 23, 2012

South Dakota, Omaha and MA have had near identical cases over the last two years...all wins...
:party29:

Maestro Pistolero · Apr 24, 2012

If legal aliens are entitled to a license, then what about out-of-state residents (NY, NJ, for example)? They don't issue to non-residents at all, AFAIK.

jrosenberger · Apr 24, 2012

Maestro Pistolero said:
If legal aliens are entitled to a license, then what about out-of-state residents (NY, NJ, for example)? They don't issue to no-residents at all, AFAIK.

It's probably best to get them issuing to resident citizens fiirst. Then the equal protection challenges write themselves.

Sent from my PG06100 using Tapatalk

krucam · Aug 13, 2012

SAF (Dave Sigale) recently filed a Motion for Preliminary Injunction against NM.

08/09/2012 18[RECAP] MOTION for Preliminary Injunction by John W. Jackson, Second Amendment Foundation, Inc.. (Sigale, David) (Entered: 08/09/2012)

08/09/2012 19[RECAP] MEMORANDUM in Support re 18[RECAP] MOTION for Preliminary Injunction filed by John W. Jackson, Second Amendment Foundation, Inc.. (Attachments: # 1 Exhibit Declaration of John W. Jackson, # 2 Exhibit Declaration of Julianne H. Versnel, # 3 Exhibit ORder of Court 8:11-CV-335 (D.NE))(Sigale, David) (Entered: 08/09/2012)

Docket: http://ia601202.us.archive.org/30/items/gov.uscourts.nmd.249540/gov.uscourts.nmd.249540.docket.html

Motion for PI #19 is attached while we wait for the Docket to reflect the update...

John_J · Nov 13, 2012

Case goes before federal judge on the 18th of december

John_J · Apr 2, 2013

Well Guys and Gals here is the lasted on the case the judge has granted a Preliminary Injunction against New Mexico so all I have to hope now is that the state does not appeal

http://www.saf.org/viewpr-new.asp?id=432

amoebicmagician · Apr 2, 2013

seriously, if they have done everything they need to do to be here legally, I don't understand why they shouldn't be able to protect themselves.

We can give ILLEGAL aliens healthcare and free schooling, and possibly the right to vote, but the people who work their asses off to get here can suck it, right?

press1280 · Apr 3, 2013

John_J said:
Well Guys and Gals here is the lasted on the case the judge has granted a Preliminary Injunction against New Mexico so all I have to hope now is that the state does not appeal

http://www.saf.org/viewpr-new.asp?id=432

Interesting-this seems to run contrary to Peterson, and in this case OC was available to the plaintiff but the law was applied correctly.
Any link to the opinion available?

pilotguy · Apr 3, 2013

I believe in this case, OC and CC are available to Citizens while only OC is available to resident aliens, and this is where the case was argued.

Al Norris · Apr 3, 2013

Here's a very brief recap of the docket:

03/30/2013 41 MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER by Chief Judge M. Christina Armijo granting 28[RECAP] Motion to Dismiss (cab) (Entered: 04/01/2013)

03/30/2013 42 MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER by Chief Judge M. Christina Armijo granting 18[RECAP] Motion for Preliminary Injunction (cab) (Entered: 04/01/2013)

Doc #41 and #42 should show up in a short time. The Docket is here: Internet Archive

Briefly, Mr. King was dismissed as a defendant (doc 41) but the overall injunction was granted.

ETA: Docket didn't update - I'm not wasting the money to attempt to RECAP it again.

press1280 · Apr 3, 2013

The court here did well considering they were constrained on the 2A argument due to Peterson. It's too bad the 10th Circuit doesn't think it's discriminatory that a non-resident can't get a CCW for Colorado(if they happen to live in a non-reciprocal state).

Al Norris · Apr 3, 2013

Not only did the court get the EP argument correct, they used strict scrutiny to do the analysis.

Now we wait to see if the State appeals to the CA10....

John_J · Mar 31, 2014

OK a very important update

The Judge signed the a permanent injunction so it is good to go. Just have to get the money together to RE RE do the CCW course :thumbsup:

DC-W · Apr 4, 2014

John_J said:
OK a very important update

The Judge signed the a permanent injunction so it is good to go. Just have to get the money together to RE RE do the CCW course

Huge congratulations to you!!!

Here's a story on the injunction:
http://www.shootingwire.com/story/315485

John_J · Apr 5, 2014

DC-W said:
Huge congratulations to you!!!

Here's a story on the injunction:
http://www.shootingwire.com/story/315485

Thank you but I was just the name on the lawsuit the SAF did all the hard work

ProGunBaller · Apr 5, 2014

Legally, this was a slam dunk. Generally, the state can only limit things to citizens if the person will be shaping policy or enforcing American values or the like. For example, voting can obviously be limited to citizens, as can jobs for public school teachers and police officers. There's no way gun rights are of this type.

SAF sues New Mexico over legal resident alien CCW permits

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