Implementing DRGO’s mission also includes sharing our expertise with policy makers. In this capacity, DRGO weighs in on firearms-related policy process by way of submitting amicus curiae briefs and providing relevant testimony to legislators.
This section indexes those briefs and testimonies.
Amicus Curiae Briefs:
Amicus curiae briefs are legal documents submitted to a court in support of a particular side of a case. DRGO has participated as an amicus on several important higher court decisions that have determined the course of gun policy.
- Amicus curiae brief submitted for the appeal hearing of Duncan v. Bercerra. The brief for DRGO, authored by Colorado attorney Joseph G.S. Greenlee and co-authored attorney David B. Kopel, was submitted January 9, 2018 to the 9th Circuit Court in support of Plaintiffs-Appellees. (Full Text PDF: Duncan amicus brief ).
- Amicus curiae brief submitted for the en banc re-hearing of Wollschlaeger v. Governor of the State of Florida. The brief for the Second Amendment Foundation and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, authored by Colorado attorney Joseph Greenlee, was submitted March 24, 2016 to the 11th Circuit Court in support of FOPA. (Full Text PDF: Wollschlaeger amicus brief ).
- Wollschlaeger v. Governor of the State of Florida concerns Florida’s famous Firearm Owners’ Privacy Act, also known as the Docs vs. Glocks law. The law, contested by anti-gun rights medical organizations, prohibits the practice of doctors abusing their patients’ trust to push a political agenda of gun control. Here DRGO is an amicus with our friends at the Claremont Institute’s Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence. (Full Text PDF: Wollschlaeger brief )
- Peruta v. County of San Diego is one of several Ninth Circuit federal appellate court cases concerning the right to discreetly carry firearms for self protection. In this brief DRGO and the Claremont Institute’s Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence join again as amici in support of that right. (Full Text PDF: Peruta brief )
- District of Columbia v. Heller is the landmark 2008 U.S. Supreme Court decision that affirmed the individual right to own a firearm for self defense. This amicus brief included DRGO’s founding parent organization the Claremont Institute as an amicus. (Full Text PDF: Heller brief )
- U.S. v. Emerson (1999) was a seminal federal appellate court decision setting the stage for ultimate U.S. Supreme Court resolution of the question of whether the Second Amendment affirms an individual right to keep and bear arms. In this amicus brief DRGO joins with the Independent Women’s Forum in arguing the case that armed self defense can save lives in extreme cases of domestic violence, including violence against women.
The Emerson decision itself is an excellent review of the history of the Second Amendment, which had previously been long neglected in American legal scholarship. (Full Text PDF: Emerson brief )
Other Documents:
- Presentation Supporting the Florida Firearms Owners Privacy Act – Robert Young, MD, 11/9/2014
- Testimony before the House Appropriations Committee (Subcommittee on Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations for 1997)—Funding for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – Part 1 – William Waters, MD (p. 935) and Miguel Faria, MD (p. 944), 3/6/1996
- Testimony before the House Appropriations Committee (Subcommittee on Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations for 1997)—Funding for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – Part 2 – Constitutional law expert and criminologist Don B. Kates (p. 954) and Timothy Wheeler, MD (p. 962) 3/6/1996
- DRGO Answers to U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Follow-Up Questions Re: S. 1882 – Timothy Wheeler, MD, 4/18/1994
- DRGO Statement to U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Re: S. 1882– Timothy Wheeler, MD, 3/23/1994