D.C. vs. Heller: City Ordered To Pay $1M In Historic Gun Case

WASHINGTON — The District of Columbia has been ordered to pay more than $1 million in attorneys' fees as a result of a historic gun case that was ultimately decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Dick Heller sued the city in 2003 over its ban on handgun ownership and the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the ban in June 2008, saying it violated the Second Amendment.

A federal judge on Thursday issued an opinion awarding Heller's attorneys $1,137,072.27 in fees and expenses. The attorneys had argued they should be awarded $3.1 million. Attorneys for the city said the figure should be closer to $840,000.

District of Columbia Attorney General Irvin B. Nathan, the head of the office that represents the city in legal matters, said in a statement that Heller's lawyers had requested an "outlandish fee." Nathan praised the U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan's decision not to accept the full hourly rate the attorneys had requested or the full number of hours they had billed for.

Heller's lead lawyer, Alan Gura, says his team is still studying the opinion and possible next steps. Gura said he is pleased with much of the opinion, but he said the fee calculation the judge used was outdated and that lawyers doing similar work in Washington are typically compensated at a higher rate. The judge's opinion awards Gura approximately $662,000 for more than 1,500 hours of work on the case, paying him at a rate of $420 per hour. Five other members of Heller's team are also compensated.

After the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in 2008, the city rewrote its gun laws and for the first time in more than 30 years permitted handgun ownership. The new laws, however, include numerous registration requirements.

Those requirements prompted Heller to sue again, saying that the new laws are too restrictive. That case is still pending, with a federal appeals court ruling in October that the city must provide evidence justifying what it called "novel" handgun registration requirements including vision tests. The city is considering changes to the law that, if implemented, could impact the case.

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Comments

[demsrsilly]

09:00 AM on 01/05/2012

Good news, DC should pay for its infringement of Mr. Heller's constitutional rights.

[Palerider1]

12:19 PM on 12/30/2011

The only reason you liberals want to take our guns is because you know that is the only way you will ever get away with your wealth re-distribution plans.

The first thing Hitler did was to take away the guns from the public, they then had no defense against a government gone wild.

The number of LEGAL guns in the U.S. makes the FREE citizens on this country bigger and more powerful than any foreign army.

Bring it, MAKE MY DAY.

[dtmfman]

07:20 AM on 12/30/2011

hey...this is nothing new....if congress isn't upholding the constitution....and is bought and paid for by big corporate interests...and not doing the will of "We the People"....why would the courts? There are already enough gun laws on the books...all they have to do is enforce them...Also remember....guns don't ki|| people....people ki|| people...

"When Fascism comes to America....it will come wrapped in a flag and waving a cross"

~Sinclair Lewis

WAKE UP PEOPLE...AMERICA HAS LEFT THE BUILDING!

[dtmfman]

07:55 AM on 12/30/2011

My bad...
""When Fascism comes to America...­.it will come wrapped in a flag and waving a cross"
Did NOT come from Sinclair Lewis...it was misquoted....

[pyro]

04:50 PM on 12/29/2011

420.00 bucks and hour.

And the rest of us can break our backs 70 hours a week and wind up with ruined bodys, laid off and bankrupt. I don't care how smart you are. Nobody is worth 420.00 bucks an hour. Not untill minimum wage is at least a living wage. THEN, and only then.

[Catherine Girod]

05:47 PM on 12/29/2011

Don't blame the lawyer. You could have gone to law school.

[Chris Juarez]

06:26 PM on 12/29/2011

Your not getting it, no lawyer deserves $420 hour.

[pyro]

07:58 PM on 12/29/2011

I don't blame the lawyer.

But remember, God made me. God made by brain. God did not make my brain lawyer material.

I don't blame God. God does not make mans laws. Man makes mans laws. I blame the lawmakers. And the sociopatic greedy stupid ignorant people who support the lawmakers that make those laws which are evil.

Occupy every thing. Occupy the vote.

[Sean Farmer]

06:00 PM on 12/29/2011

Minimum wages also either 1) do nothing (if they are below the market clearing price) or 2) create unemployment by making working arrangements that would have otherwise happened illegal.

Is it more fair to have minimum wage be a living wage and have more people out of work? I don't think so.

[SirCoolBreeze]

07:23 PM on 12/29/2011

You, of course, have misinterpreted the data at hand. Fail.

[solo55a]

03:03 PM on 12/31/2011

If the CEO, and COO's and CFO'sof major corporations were willing to take a 5 million dollar bonus and leave the other 10-40 million in the companies; they could rehire tens of thousands of people they layed off. But they won't because they are just greedy.