GLENDALE, Calif. — The U.S. Department of Justice sued the City of Glendale on Monday, November 9, alleging that the city's concealed carry permit regime — which federal prosecutors say costs a first-time applicant between $1,971 and $2,106 all-in — violates the Second Amendment by pricing ordinary citizens out of a constitutional right, according to the department's announcement of the lawsuit.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice (press release)

The complaint, United States v. City of Glendale, No. 2:26-cv-13098, was filed Monday in federal court in Los Angeles. The Digital Free Press, which read the 15-page complaint, reported that the Glendale Police Department charges first-time applicants a $1,078 city fee — half when they apply, half after approval — and $826 for a renewal, on top of costs the applicant must pay to others.

Source: The Digital Free Press (complaint read)

Where the roughly $2,000 goes

Beyond the city's own fee, the complaint itemises a $93 state fingerprinting fee, a required training course and range qualification estimated at about $300 to $435, and a psychological evaluation at about $500. Added together, the department says, a first permit comes to roughly $2,000 and each renewal to about $1,300. "In other words, Glendale charges its residents approximately $54.17 per month to exercise a fundamental constitutional right," the complaint says, comparing the fees with the $1.50 poll tax the Supreme Court struck down in 1966 — about $15.65 in today's money. The complaint also claims Glendale charges, by far, the highest permit fees in the nation. Those are the government's allegations in a newly filed lawsuit, not court findings.

The jump is recent. In the previous fiscal year, the Justice Department says, Glendale PD required only a $100 fee for first-time applicants and a $25 fee for renewals. MyNewsLA reported that an October 28 warning letter from Harmeet Dhillon, then the assistant attorney general for civil rights, told Glendale's mayor, police chief and city attorney that the fee system was "one of the most expensive CCW (concealed-carry weapons) application schemes in the nation" — weeks before the department sued.

Source: MyNewsLA

Not just the money: a 15-step process with no published standards

The lawsuit also attacks how Glendale decides who gets a permit. The complaint lists 15 steps, including three reference checks, interviews of the references and of the applicant, a psychological exam, a review of the applicant's public statements including social media, and a 16-hour training course. The Justice Department says Glendale PD publishes no objective standards for those checks. It argues that the reference checks, the social media review and the psychological exam convert what should be a "shall-issue" system into a discretionary "may-issue" one — the kind of system the Supreme Court rejected in its 2022 Bruen decision — and it also challenges a residency requirement.

The legal ground: Bruen and the pattern-or-practice law

The suit is brought under 34 U.S.C. § 12601, the 1994 law that lets the attorney general sue over a pattern or practice of law-enforcement conduct that deprives people of constitutional rights; the complaint adds a second basis, arguing the United States may also sue on behalf of its citizens. On the gun-rights question, the department leans on New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass'n v. Bruen (2022), which recognised concealed carry as a right and allowed objective "shall-issue" licensing only where it is not "put toward abusive ends" — the decision itself gave "exorbitant fees" as an example of abuse. "The City of Glendale cannot impose unreasonable fees and unbridled discretion that undermines that core constitutional right," said Acting Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Jesus Osete. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, for the Central District of California, added: "Exorbitant government fees that interfere with this right are abhorrent to our Constitution and our nation's founding principles."

There is a warning sign for the department in its own docket, however. On the same day the Glendale suit was filed, a federal judge in Maryland dismissed the Justice Department's § 12601 suit against Montgomery County's gun law, writing that the department's reading of the statute "would effect a breathtakingly broad expansion of federal power," The Digital Free Press reported. That ruling does not bind the California court, but Glendale's lawyers can be expected to put it in front of the Los Angeles judge.

How Glendale compares — and where the city stands

By MyNewsLA's comparison, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department charges about $175 for a first-time CCW permit and the Los Angeles Police Department about $325, not including fingerprinting and training — a fraction of Glendale's all-in total in the same county. Glendale's city attorney's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, MyNewsLA reported, and as of Tuesday morning the court docket showed only the department's opening filings, with no response yet from the city. The fees and the vetting steps therefore remain in force unless and until a court orders otherwise or the city settles.

For would-be applicants in Glendale — a city where many residents, including immigrant families who run small businesses, commute across Los Angeles County and work nights — the practical effect of the current schedule is the one the lawsuit describes: a legal permit to carry costs more up front than many families' monthly car payment, and must be paid again at every two-year renewal. Whether that price is a legitimate cost-recovery fee, as cities defending such schedules usually argue, or an unconstitutional barrier, as the Justice Department alleges, is now a question for a federal judge.

What happens next

Glendale must answer the complaint in federal court in Los Angeles, and the case will test two open questions at once: how much a city may charge for a concealed carry permit after Bruen, and how far the 1994 pattern-or-practice law reaches into local licensing — the very question on which the department just lost in Maryland. The suit is enforced by the Civil Rights Division's Second Amendment Section, which also handles complaints from gun owners who believe a state or local government has infringed their rights. Until the court rules or the parties settle, Glendale applicants keep paying the schedule the department calls the most expensive in America — which is the department's allegation, and now its case to prove.