DOJ Just Sued San Jose Over a $1,600 Carry Permit Fee

The Justice Department dated the release Wednesday, September 16, 2026, Press Release Number 26-1,069, from the Office of Public Affairs. “Today, the Justice Department filed suit against the City of San Jose, California, and the San Jose Police Department for charging private individuals unreasonable fees to exercise their Second Amendment right to lawfully carry a firearm.” The Department’s number: “nearly $1,600 per license,” “the highest in the nation.” The comparison in the release is the tell. “San Jose’s fee towers over those imposed by the country’s biggest cities. New York, Washington, D.C., Boston, and Chicago all charge a small fraction of San Jose’s fee.” The Department cites the Supreme Court: “exorbitant fees” of that kind “violate the Second Amendment because they deny ordinary citizens their right to carry firearms for self-defense.” The complaint PDF is posted on the Civil Rights Division site.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, in the quoted statement: “All law-abiding Americans have a constitutional right to bear arms for self-defense. This right is not a luxury reserved for a privileged few, but a fundamental element of our republic.” And: “You don’t need a law degree to recognize that charging a fee several times higher than the cost of the firearm itself is illogical, and an unconstitutional attempt to impede Americans’ Second Amendment rights.” The release points to the Civil Rights Division’s Second Amendment Section, 34 U.S.C. § 12601, and Executive Order 14206. A complaint form sits at justice.gov/crt/second-amendment-section. This is a fee case, not a shall-issue rewrite. San Jose still gets to run a permitting office. What DOJ filed over is the price of walking in the door.