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D.C. Must Pay $1M In Legal Fees For Gun Ban Case

By: Sharon Rae // December 30, 2011
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D.C. may have to pay $1 million in legal fees to the plaintiff in the case that ultimately overturned the city's gun ban. 
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D.C. may have to pay $1 million in legal fees to the plaintiff in the case that ultimately overturned the city's gun ban. 

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. 

The District has since begun registering guns, although that process hit a snag earlier this year when the sole gun dealer licensed to register handguns in D.C. lost his lease and had no shop to operate in. The dealer has since taken an office in the Metropolitan Police Department headquarters.

The courts have upheld the city's ban on assault weapons. 

A federal judge has issued a 65-page opinion Thursday awarding Heller's attorneys more than $1 million in fees and expenses stemming from the drawn-out gun case. A spokesman for the D.C. Office of the Attorney General says lawyers for the city were studying the opinion.

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