D.C. to pay $5.1 million settlement after judge finds Second Amendment violations

D.C. will pay $5.1 million as part of a class-action settlement with gun owners who were arrested under laws that have since been found to violate the Second Amendment, according to the settlement agreement.

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U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth gave preliminary approval to the settlement agreement on Monday following years of litigation. Lamberth had previously ruled in September 2021 that D.C. arrested, jailed, prosecuted and seized guns from six people “based on an unconstitutional set of laws” and violated their Second Amendment rights.

The laws — a ban on carrying handguns outside the home and others that effectively banned nonresidents from carrying guns at all in D.C. — have since been struck down in federal court. They were part of a “gun control regime that completely banned carrying handguns in public,” Lamberth wrote in the 2021 ruling.

Now, D.C. will pay a total of $300,000 to the six plaintiffs and $1.9 million in attorneys fees, with the majority of the rest of the money set aside for more than 3,000 people estimated to qualify for the class-action.

The D.C. attorney general’s office declined to comment. Attorneys for the six gun owners did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The settlement agreement follows litigation in several major federal court cases over the last 15 years that have led judges to strike down highly restrictive D.C. gun laws, slowly leading to more legal gun ownership in a city where illegal weapons have dominated.

For years, most D.C. residents could not even own guns in their homes, let alone possess them in public. But that changed with the seminal 2008 Second Amendment Supreme Court case District of Columbia v. Heller, which invalidated D.C.’s handgun ban.

A succession of court rulings chipped away at other restrictive D.C. laws. In 2014, a federal judge in Palmer v. District of Columbia struck down D.C.’s total ban on carrying handguns in public and enjoined the District from banning nonresidents from legally registering firearms. And in 2017, a federal judge invalidated D.C.’s requirement that people show “good reason” to obtain a concealed-carry permit — significantly opening the door to more legal guns.

In this case, the six plaintiffs — including four non-D.C. residents — were arrested between 2012 and 2014 on gun-related charges. They filed a lawsuit in 2015.

Those arrested include the lead plaintiff, Maggie Smith, a nurse from North Carolina who was pulled over by D.C. police for a routine traffic stop in June 2014, according to court documents. Smith, who had no criminal record, informed officers her car contained a pistol that was licensed in her home state — for which police promptly arrested her, seizing her gun and taking her to jail, where she stayed overnight.

In another case, Gerard Cassagnol, a Maryland resident, was driving home from his job in Northern Virginia when he got pulled over in the District. When police asked whether he had a gun in the vehicle, he said yes, giving police the combination to the locked safe where he kept it. He was ultimately jailed for two nights on the gun charges.

The charges were dropped in both those cases and others after the ruling in Palmer. But for some the damage was done: Cassagnol lost his job after his arrest. Another plaintiff had his Top Secret security clearance placed under review.

While D.C. argued at the time that the arrestees should have done their research about D.C. gun laws, or “attempt” to license them, before driving through the District with guns, Lamberth found that those actions would have been futile.

“There were no actions that the plaintiffs could have taken during the time period in question that would have allowed them to carry a gun for self-defense in the District of Columbia,” Lamberth wrote in the 2021 ruling.

D.C.’s ‘red-flag’ gun seizures are low. Officials hope to change that.

After the recent federal court rulings, legal gun ownership in the District has steadily increased. While at the time of the 2017 ruling there were only 123 active permits, today there are over 15,000, with just over one-third — 5,729 — belonging to D.C. residents and the rest to nonresidents, according to data D.C. police provided to The Washington Post last week.

The settlement agreement must still have a “fairness hearing” in December before final approval is given. Court records show D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) signed off on the $5.1 million settlement amount in June.