Group Files A Supreme Court Petition On Lisa Folajtar’s Felon’s Gun Rights Case
A California-based gun rights group filed a petition in the Supreme Court for a review of Lisa Folajtar's case.
The Firearms Policy Coalition requested a writ of certiorari for the highest court to reconsider the decision to withdraw Folajtar's gun rights after a tax-related conviction more than a decade ago.
Several gun rights activists earlier pointed out that the case was a perfect candidate for a Supreme Court hearing. Jonathan Turley, a law professor and a member of the Fox News editorial team described the case as “tailor-made for Justice Barrett" and the Supreme Court.
Folajtar filed a petition in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania District Court for the restoration of her gun rights but the court ruled against her.
She appealed the ruling which was upheld by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. The appellate court noted that Congress had already considered tax offenses as serious crimes, thus the question of restoration of 2A was unnegotiable.
The leading opinion said that Congress had considered the gravity of tax-related offenses when categorizing such an offense as a felony. The justices argued that restoring Folajtar’s gun rights would reduce the gravity of her offenses.
However, the petition filed by FPC notes that the Supreme Court determined in the District of Columbia v. Heller that that “the Second Amendment is not a 'second-class right, subject to an entirely different body of rules than the other Bill of Rights guarantees’” contrary to most lower courts’ rulings. It adds that most lower courts have failed to accord the Second Amendment the recognition it deserves.
Commenting on the new petition, FPC Director of Legal Strategy Adam Kraut says that Folajtar is a law-abiding citizen whose only wish is to exercise self-defense rights at home.
“The Government’s lifetime ban applied to her cannot withstand constitutional scrutiny," Mr. Kraut said. "And more, there exists a certain irony that the Government strips an individual of their Second Amendment rights for making a false statement on a tax return when our Founders took up arms against the King after refusing to pay taxes.”
FPC Director of Research Joseph Greenlee asserted that there's no historical precedent for "disarming nonviolent persons like Ms. Folajtar." He added that people were only disarmed if they were dangerous as judge Bibas indicated in his dissent in Folajtar’s appeal ruling.
“We hope that the Supreme Court will hear this case and put an end to the unjust and ahistorical prohibitions on nonviolent felons,” Greenlee said.
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