(AP)
The Justice Department has sued the city of San Jose, California, over its $1,591 fee for a concealed carry permit, arguing that the charge places an unconstitutional financial burden on residents seeking to exercise their Second Amendment rights.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court, names the city and the San Jose Police Department as defendants and challenges the city’s concealed carry licensing fees as excessive.
San Jose’s current fee schedule lists the initial application fee at $1,591. Applicants pay $318, or 20%, when they file the application, while the remaining $1,273 is due only if the license is issued. The city also charges a $25 renewal fee.
The Justice Department contends the fee is the highest in the nation and argues that it makes exercising the right to carry a firearm impractical for middle-class residents and impossible for low-income residents.
“San Jose is a national outlier when it comes to burdening the exercise of fundamental rights,” the DOJ said in its complaint.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, who leads the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said the Second Amendment protects the right to bear arms for self-defense and argued that the San Jose fee improperly conditions that right on a person’s ability to pay.
“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,” Dhillon said in a DOJ announcement.
The DOJ’s complaint points to substantially lower fees in other major jurisdictions. It says San Francisco charges $144 for the comparable local fee, while Berkeley charges $255 when an application is filed and another $325 upon approval. Santa Clara County charges $488 at each stage.
The federal government is relying in part on the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, which recognized that law-abiding citizens have a Second Amendment right to carry firearms in public for self-defense while noting that licensing regimes cannot impose “exorbitant fees” that effectively deny that right.
The DOJ argues San Jose’s fee falls within that prohibition and asks a federal judge to block the city and police department from imposing what the department describes as abusive licensing fees.
The city disputes the federal government’s characterization of the fee.
San Jose City Attorney Susana Alcala Wood said in a Sept. 15 letter to the Justice Department that the $1,591 charge is a “full cost-recovery fee” based on the documented cost of processing concealed carry applications.
Wood said $1,243.52 of the fee represents staff time, based on an average of 6.5 hours of work per application, while another $347.55 represents indirect overhead. She said the calculation is reviewed annually and adjusted as necessary.
Wood also disputed the DOJ’s characterization of the payment requirements, noting that applicants do not have to pay the full $1,591 when they apply. Under the city’s current system, only $318 is collected initially, with the remaining amount due if the license is issued.
San Jose’s fee is also separate from other costs applicants may incur. The police department says applicable California state fees are added to the city charge, while applicants must separately pay for a required psychological examination and concealed-carry firearms training.
The DOJ is challenging those additional requirements as well, including San Jose’s requirement that applicants undergo psychological testing at their own expense. The complaint argues that applicants have no fixed price for the evaluation because the cost is determined by the authorized psychologist they use.
California law permits local licensing authorities to impose fees for the reasonable costs associated with processing, issuing and enforcing concealed carry licenses. The central dispute in the federal lawsuit is whether San Jose’s $1,591 fee complies with that requirement and with the Second Amendment.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.