For the FreeRepublic "banglist", please click HERE .
Posted on 08/26/2008 7:28:42 AM PDT by gieriscm
Lawyers who won the historic Second Amendment gun rights case in the Supreme Court — District of Columbia v. Heller (07-290) — on Monday asked a federal judge to award them more than $3.5 million for attorneys’ fees, plus $13,215.30 for expenses and court costs. In a motion and memorandum filed with U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan, the attorneys said that they had achieved “one of the most profound and important victories available under our system of justice.”
Their argument also suggested that this was a David vs. Goliath clash, with the attorneys on their far side far outnumbered in lawyers, legal resources and government funding.
Their motion said the lawyers expect that the District of Columbia government will oppose their fee and expenses request, but added that they had not yet received a formal response.
Looking back at the case, the memorandum remarked: “Throughout it all, [the challengers’] legal team consisted primarily of the three undersigned attorneys, with occasional support from a small handful of others, all working on a pro bono basis.” The three are Alexandria attorneys Alan Gura and Clark M. Neily III, plus Robert A. Levy of the Cato Institute, “who also personally bore all the expenses of the litigation,” according to the document.
The filing said that Gura had asked for “an exiguous payment” [dictionary definition: excessively scanty] to get involved, but “never saw this as anything other than a pro bono case.” He asked that the Court keep confidential the details of that arrangement, but said the details would be disclosed if the Court required it. The last payment under that deal was received in mid-2003, the document said. The case was filed originally in District Court in February 2003.
The memorandum said that, in addition to a base amount on hourly rates, a multiplier had been added because this was an “exceptional case.” It added: “If this is not an ‘exceptional case’ warranting an enhancement multiplier, we are at a loss to describe what case would qualify.”
The resulting fee claim was based, for example, on an hourly rate for Gura of $557 per hour, times a 2.0 enhancement for 1,661 hours, resulting in a claim for $1,850,354, and an hourly rate of the same size for Neily times the same enhancement for 808.3 hours, resulting in $900,446.20. Levy’s claim was for $663,498.40. Overall, the claim for seven attorneys’ time totaled $3,559,097.20.
Among the expenses and costs claim totaling $13,215.30, the largest sums were for payments to attorneys Stephen Halbrook, a Fairfax, Va., attorney who has long been associated with court cases over Second Amendment rights ($3,250), and Don Kates ($4,400).
The challengers to District of Columbia gun laws — including a flat ban on private possession of pistols in the home or anywhere other than a business — lost in District Court, but won in the D.C. Circuit and in the Supreme Court. The Justices’ 5-4 decision, announced on June 26, the final day of the last Term, declared for the first time in history that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to have a functioning gun for use in self-defense in the home.
In the Supreme Court, the local gun ban was challenged by a government security guard who lives in Washington, Dick Anthony Heller. After the Court ruled, and the D.C. government set up a new regime of licensing of pistols, Heller filed a new lawsuit in federal court challenging the new approach as too restrictive. (He has since had his pistol registered under the new regulations.) Attorney Halbrook is the lead counsel in that case.
Two other District residents joined in the lawsuit (Heller, et al., v. District of Columbia, et al., District Court docket 08-1289), now pending before District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina. The District government’s response to the lawsuit is now due on Thursday of this week.
I really hope Gura prevails. If DC and other jurisdictions that trample on the Second Amendment have to pay court costs for the lawsuits to overturn gun control laws, that will help prevent such laws from being passed in the future.
Me too. Hit them in the wallet!
I would rather see charges, if can be, on those such as the Mayor and any responsible hired or elected city official to be fired on grounds of violating the Constitutional oath they took. Then all the financial fees should be brought against them personally and include the their attorneys. I know, a stretch but I could hope can’t I.
(Me too. Hit them in the wallet!)
HUH? Hit WHO in the wallet? The Government does not make money(earn it). It takes money from the citizens. So they very citizens that needed laywers to get their Constitutional Rights will be the ones that end up pay the freight.
I would like to see the politicians and police officials hit with both crimminal and civil charges for abuse of power.
For the FreeRepublic "banglist", please click HERE .
And once the citizens get hit with a huge bill for attorney’s fees, maybe next time they elect a politician, they’ll think twice about it and maybe elect someone who cares about the Constitution.
Yes, but now citizens in DC and other jurisdictions that are attempting to end-run around Heller won't tolerate it so well if they know the consequences.
Besides, award or no in this particular instance, ALL public servants are now on notice that if they attempt to infringe upon anyone's 2A rights, they're going to be hit with a Section 1983 lawsuit.
As far as the Courts are concerned, this is correct. However, Art 6 para 2 applies "Shall not be infringed" to the Courts as well as the rest of the injunctions in the Bill of Rights. It never should have been necessary to take a case like this to court had our System been operating as designed.
It is a measure of how screwed up our "legal" system is that it can so completely disregard the very document that grants it power to begin with...
Hit the Mayor, City Council, et al... under Asset Forfeiture to pay the Bill.
The citizens have to care about the constitution first before they start thinking about politicians and rights. I don’t think that will happen....
This is how the ACLU operates, no? The citizens pay them to take our rights away. At least this goes the other way for once.
Unfortunately most of the citizens of said jurisdictions don't pay taxes and, as such, don't care one way or the other.
No a majority elected these clowns, and paid them to stomp on the rights of a minority (e.g. those who want to exercise their 2nd Amendment rights). When the bill for the clowns gets too high, then a majority will dump them and not until.
Holy cow! $557/hour????? What do these guys make in a year?
The let ‘em pay. Who cares?
That's the gross hourly rate, and that's low for DC. Out of that the law firm has to pay rent, utilities, malpractice insurance, the secretaries, legal aids, and HR staff, their payroll taxes and benefits, etc.
OTOH, the citizens, at least the majority who have continuously voted for big government, rights-averse candidates DO actually bear a degree of responsibility. They voted for people who abused their office and trampled the rights of would-be gun owners.
FWIW $557/hr for a DC attorney is pretty cheap.
Further importance of voting wisely: elect an idiot, and he's gonna cost YOU money.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.