Posted April 11, 2017 10:34 am by Comments

By Christen Smith

The Cato Institute filed an amicus brief Monday in a federal civil rights case over California’s 2015 expansion of its Gun Free School Zone Act.
The D.C.-based policy organization asserts in Ulises Garcia, et al. v. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, state law banning concealed carry permit holders from possessing firearms on school grounds violates the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause because it carves out a special exemption for retired law enforcement.
“In this case, an examination of the full factual circumstances proves fatal to the differing treatment contained in the amendment. Both the effects of the amendment itself and the history of lobbying from which the differing treatment arose show that no serious policy concern was on the minds of legislators,” said Cato Institute legal scholars Ilya Shapiro and Thomas Berry in a brief filed in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday. “Instead, the amendment was enacted purely to advantage one politically powerful class at the advantage of a less powerful and less popular class. Such a motivation is impermissible under the Equal Protection Clause, and for that reason the differing treatment contained in the amendment must be struck down.”
In August, U.S. District Judge Beverly Reid O’Connell granted the

Source: Guns.com

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