BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation is among several groups and individuals involved in a consolidated appeal of a lower court ruling in the challenge of New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s emergency order last September which suspended Second Amendment rights in Albuquerque and surrounding Bernalillo County.
The case is being appealed to the Tenth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, Colorado. SAF’s case is known as Fort v. Grisham. SAF is joined by the New Mexico Shooting Sports Association, Firearms Policy Coalition and Bernalillo County resident Zachary Fort, for whom the case is named. They are represented by Jordon George of Aragon Moss George Jenkins, LLP who has also filed a motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction. The lawsuit and motion were filed in U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico. He is joined by attorneys David H. Thompson, Peter A. Patterson and Kate Hardiman at Cooper & Kirk in Washington, D.C.
“The issues in this case are clear,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb. “Last September, Gov. Lujan Grisham acted without any input from the State Legislature and unilaterally decided the entire city of Albuquerque and Bernalillo County are one big ‘sensitive area.’ She declared lawful firearms carry in those areas was suspended, in direct violation of the Second Amendment. We immediately filed a lawsuit, as did several other groups and organizations, and our cases are all consolidated in the appeal process.”
“Despite retreating from her original order after the district court issued a temporary restraining order,” noted SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut, “Gov. Lujan Grisham continues to enforce her ban on carrying in parks and playgrounds, insisting it to be constitutional. She is wrong because this carry restriction is fundamentally incompatible with the Second Amendment.”
The consolidated appeal involves three separate cases, involving six organizations including SAF and its colleagues, and three private citizens.