The Daily Fuckup

The Justice Department filed back-to-back gun cases in Colorado this week, first suing Denver on May 5 and then suing the state of Colorado on May 6. The two complaints land one day apart, but they follow the same legal theory: the challenged restrictions, DOJ says, unlawfully burden the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding gun owners. ([justice.gov](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-city-denver-unconstitutional-weapons-bans))

In the Denver case, DOJ says the city’s ordinance makes it a crime to possess certain semi-automatic rifles, including AR-15-style rifles. The department argues those firearms are commonly owned for lawful purposes and therefore fall within constitutional protection. In the Colorado case, DOJ makes the same basic argument about magazines, saying the state’s law bans what it calls standard-capacity firearm magazines, even as the statute describes them as large-capacity magazines. ([justice.gov](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-city-denver-unconstitutional-weapons-bans))

Both filings are being run through DOJ’s new Second Amendment Section in the Civil Rights Division. The department’s press releases say that section is enforcing the Second Amendment and handling the challenges to the Denver ordinance and Colorado statute. ([justice.gov](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-city-denver-unconstitutional-weapons-bans))

The result is a quick one-two litigation move against local gun limits in Colorado, with the federal government now directly asking courts to strike down both sets of restrictions. The filings do not change the underlying state and local laws on their own, but they do put DOJ on the offensive in a pair of constitutional fights over weapons and magazines. ([justice.gov](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-city-denver-unconstitutional-weapons-bans))