By Dave Workman
The Second Amendment Foundation and California Rifle & Pistol Association have filed a federal lawsuit against the Santa Clara, California Sheriff’s Department, alleging the agency is practicing unconstitutional carry permit policies, which include exorbitant fees and a mandatory psychological examination for carry permit applicants. The case is known as Blank v. Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department.
In their complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose Division, SAF, CRPA and five private citizens allege, “Santa Clara County has a history of abusing its power to issue CCW permits. Former Sheriff Laurie Smith was sanctioned for her corruption and willful misconduct of issuing CCW Permits in a “pay-to-play” scheme to those who donated money to her political campaign. Even for those CCW permits that were not part of Smith’s corrupt patronage scheme, the overwhelming majority of the permits that were issued went only to Santa Clara County’s elite and powerful residents (e.g., judges, district attorneys, elected politicians).
“Santa Clara’s new CCW policies have merely substituted an underground ‘pay-to-play’ grift,” the complaint adds, “for a broad daylight constitutionally corrupt grift, that is intended to dissuade most people from exercising a fundamental right. Ironically (or maybe unironically), Defendants’ website has a page titled ‘Apply for concealed carry weapon license.’ That introductory page contains language and links to other websites which strongly imply that campaign contribution disclosures are part of the licensing process, by suggesting that CCW permit applicants are required to comply with Government Code § 84308 (the Levine Act) while their applications are pending.
“Beyond the high initial cost of the application fee, people are required to pay for a training course, psychological exam, and Live Scan fingerprinting,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “All those fees add up to around $2,000 or more, making obtaining a concealed carry permit out of reach for a large swath of the public. It’s not a far stretch to see that this fee structure is simply another way to deliberately discourage people from exercising their constitutional right to bear arms.”
SAF and CRPA are joined by five private citizens including Antonio Ramos Rodriguez, Kyle Hoang Truong, Charles Koon Chiu Young, Jonathan Young and Robert M. Blank. They are represented by attorneys C.D. Michel and Anna M. Barvir at Michel & Associates of Long Beach, Calif.,. and Donald Kilmer, with law offices in Caldwell, Idaho.
Named as defendants are the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department, Sheriff Robert Jonsen in his official capacity, and several unidentified individuals.
According to the 91-page lawsuit, “The Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department (the “Department”)— which already charged high fees for a CCW Permit—recently amended its fee schedule and now charges an application fee of $976.00 ($488 initial fee + $488 issuance fee), up from $662.00. This amount does not include the additional expense borne by the applicant of a required training course (typically $250-$400).
“In addition to the cost barrier of the permit itself,” the lawsuit adds, “Defendants insist that all applicants submit to an intrusive psychological examination (costing about $500) to determine if the applicant is ‘mentally fit’ to exercise a fundamental right. Though statutory authority exists for allocating the costs of such an examination (presumably—and only—in appropriate circumstances), there is no statutory authority (nor any constitutional authority) for conditioning the exercise of a fundamental right on submission to psychological testing for every applicant without evidence and good cause.”
“Fees this extreme for the application of a simple permit can only be in place for one reason – to keep the peaceable citizens of Santa Clara from exercising their Second Amendment rights,” said SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut. “These fees amount to nothing short of a pay-to-play scheme wherein only those with the means to afford the application costs have the ability to exercise their constitutional rights. Not only is this discriminatory, but it’s a clear violation of the Second Amendment.”
The lawsuit provides a math lesson. The permit costs $996, plus $400 for training and $500 for the psychological exam. Add $100 for a “live scan” fingerprinting, the pricetag for a permit is $1,996. Applications for renewal cost $447 (every two years), and the cost of another training course bring the costs to about $850.
“Over a 10-year period, a law-abiding resident of Santa Clara County can expect to pay approximately $5,396.00 to exercise the ‘right’ of self-defense,” plaintiffs contend.
California is one of a handful of states which traditionally have discouraged individual citizens from applying for and obtaining carry permits. After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against New York State’s permit process in the Bruen case three years ago, restrictive states scrambled to change their laws so they had the appearance of compliance, but actually applied different restrictions to still discourage permit applications.
“By imposing such high licensing fees for a CCW permit application and mandating psychological testing without good cause,” the lawsuit contends, “Santa Clara County is merely substituting an unconstitutional wealth qualification for a corrupt political patronage scheme that has the effect of suppressing its residents’ Second Amendment rights.”
Workman is editor-in-chief at TheGunMag.com
