Press Release

Public Relations contacts: Russell Thomas (202) 857-4517 & Bruce Buchanan (336) 728-7027

 

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Nearly 900 State legislators and two governors have joined the firm’s brief seeking the U.S. Supreme Court’s guidance in securing for all citizens the Constitutional right to bear arms.

Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, PLLC, has filed a brief of Amici Curiae State Legislators with the Supreme Court asking the Court to incorporate the Second Amendment (which protects the fundamental right of the people to keep and bear arms) as “against the States.” This legal doctrine would ensure that state and local legislation would have to comply with the Second Amendment.

Womble Carlyle is grateful that 890 State legislators from all 50 states have signed on in support of this Amici Curiae brief, as have Governors Charlie Crist of Florida and Rick Perry of Texas and Lieutenant Governors of a number of states. These state lawmakers have said that incorporation of the Second Amendment will help clear up lingering uncertainty about the boundaries surrounding gun ownership rights and allow them to pass effective, Constitutionally compliant legislation in this area.
 

The Amici Curiae brief supports the Petitioners in Otis T. McDonald, et al. v. City of Chicago, et al., before the U.S. Supreme Court. This particular case concerns handgun bans in the City of Chicago and Village of Oak Park, Ill. The parties are contesting whether such a broad ban is unconstitutional and should be overturned by the Supreme Court in light of its ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller, which struck down the District’s handgun ban last year.

The core of the State lawmakers’ argument, as outlined by Womble Carlyle attorneys John Parker Sweeney, Sky Woodward and Erin Miller, is that incorporation of the Second Amendment does no harm to the distinct roles given the Federal Government and the States in our nation’s federal system.

“Federalism was not intended to be a vehicle for States to limit personal freedoms,” Sweeney said. “The Supreme Court affirmed last year in the Heller case the right of the individual to keep and bear arms. By incorporating the Second Amendment against the States, the Court can ensure that those rights are protected for law-abiding citizens in every state.”

Womble Carlyle contributed its services to these State lawmakers pro bono publico in this matter of great significance to the public interest.

Click here to read the brief.

 

John Parker Sweeney—John has a national reputation in business litigation, having handled numerous “bet-the-company” cases, particularly disputes involving product liability and environmental law issues. A litigator with more than 30 years of experience, John is a National Director of DRI, the Voice of the Defense Bar, and is ranked as a Maryland Super Lawyer.
 

T. Sky Woodward—Sky is a veteran civil litigator with extensive experience defending manufacturers in mass tort product liability cases as well as representing real estate clients in environmental claims. She has been honored as a “Leader in the Law” by the Maryland Daily Record and as one of the “Best Lawyers in America” for product liability litigation.

Erin C. Miller—Erin focuses her practice on complex environmental litigation and regulatory compliance matters for energy, chemical and manufacturing companies, commercial and residential property owners and operators, and real estate developers.

 

A full-service business law firm, Womble Carlyle ranks among AmLaw’s 100 leading firms in the country and is a top law firm for companies doing business in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic states. The firm is a recipient of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund Corporate Leadership Award, making Womble Carlyle the first law firm ever to receive the highest honor given to a business organization in recognition of its support of the Fund and its 45 member educational institutions.

Founded in 1876, Womble Carlyle operates in six states and the District of Columbia with nearly 550 attorneys in eleven offices located in Atlanta, GA; Greenville, SC; Charlotte, Greensboro, Raleigh, Research Triangle Park, and Winston-Salem, NC; Washington, DC; Tysons Corner, VA; Wilmington, DE; and Baltimore, MD. Womble Carlyle is located in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, and serves clients nationally and globally.