GIFFORDS, Brady, Former Civil Rights DAs, Highlight the Dangers of Trump DOJ Challenge to DCs Assault Weapons Ban

Today, in a joint amicus brief in United States v. District of Columbia, GIFFORDS Law Center, Brady, and former attorneys for the Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), including former Assistant Attorneys General Kristen Clarke and Vanita Gupta, highlighted the government’s pernicious use of federal civil rights law to undermine public safety. The Trump administration uses the pattern-or-practice provision of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 to bring its legal challenge, and the brief explains that this use is “novel – and dangerous.” The amicus brief provides the history of the law, the understanding of its purpose, the historical DOJ practices enforcing it, and how this lawsuit “represents a stark departure from that norm.”

“By redirecting federal resources to dismantle D.C.’s common-sense laws, the Trump administration is once again showing how it prioritizes gun industry profits over public safety. We are proud to join former Department of Justice officials across multiple administrations on this brief to defend D.C.’s laws,” said GIFFORDS Law Center Senior Litigation Attorney Billy Clark.

“We surveyed the last two dozen pattern-or-practice cases in the three decades after the law’s passage, and it’s clear that DOJs in the past, including Trump’s first administration, drew from the law’s original context, structure, and expressed purpose.  Passed on the heels of the early 1990s Los Angeles police beating of Rodney King, the pattern-or-practice provision was designed to focus on unconstitutional police misconduct that is traceable to systemic failures within police departments. Since January 2025, Trump’s DOJ has reversed course entirely and prided itself on ending the investigations and lawsuits focused on discriminatory policing and the unjustified use of deadly force. The result is that Americans in cities and towns experiencing unconstitutional police conduct and bias have no one in Washington looking after them because the law that used to protect them is being improperly weaponized to attack common-sense gun violence prevention laws, like D.C.’s assault weapons ban,” said Brady Chief Legal Officer Douglas Letter.

Click here for the full joint brief.