BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation and its allies in a federal lawsuit against New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s prohibition of lawful carrying of arms in Albuquerque and surrounding Bernalillo County have filed an appellants reply brief with the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The case is known as Fort v. Grisham, and is part of a consolidation of cases all challenging the governor’s arbitrary carry ban announced last year. SAF is joined by the New Mexico Shooting Sports Association, Firearms Policy Coalition and a private citizen, Zachary Fort, for whom the case is named. They are represented by attorneys Jordon P. George at Aragon Moss George Jenkins in Albuquerque, and David H. Thompson, Peter A. Patterson and Kate Hardiman at Cooper & Kirk in Washington, D.C.
The case is on appeal from U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico, where Judge David Herrera Urias issued a temporary restraining order against the governor’s edict. The governor is now appealing.
“Gov. Grisham cannot escape the fact that her unilateral restrictions on public carry are in direct violation of the Second Amendment,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “She offers no analogous laws, no proof of regulations consistent with the nation’s historical tradition, to support her actions. As the Heller and Bruen rulings clarified, the government simply cannot use gun-related violence to restrict, much less suspend, Second Amendment rights.”
“The governor’s order of last September, declaring a state of emergency and suspending the right to bear arms was and remains a flagrant violation of the Second Amendment,” stated SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut. “No governor has the constitutional authority to nullify, even temporarily, rights secured under the federal constitution and Bill of Rights. We’re determined to pursue this case as far as necessary, and we are confident we will prevail.”