Robert A. Levy doesn’t own a gun, but he is at the heart of a Second Amendment case that the Supreme Court agreed to hear last week.
Levy, a millionaire and lawyer with lots of Washington connections, used his money to finance a challenge to the District of Columbia statute that prohibits the ownership of handguns.
Hint: Click in map to explore connectionsStory continues below interactive map 
The 31-year-old statute also places restricts on the possession of other firearms, including a requirement that the guns in homes be unloaded.
In putting the suit on its calendar, the court took on a Second Amendment case for the first time since 1939.
It limited its consideration to the question of whether the D.C. statute violates the Second Amendment right to bear arms to individuals who are “not affiliated with any state-regulated militia.”
Levy argues that the statute is unconstitutional because it goes too far.
“Almost no one argues that Second Amendment rights are absolute,” he wrote in an essay published in the Baltimore Sun. “… But the Constitution does not permit an across-the-board ban on all handguns, in all homes, for all residents.”
Levy stresses that he does not represent the National Rifle Association.
“I’m not a member of any of those pro-gun groups,” Levy told the Washington Post in March. “I don’t travel in those circles. My interest is in vindicating the Constitution.”
Levy, a Washington native who now lives in Naples, Fla., said that the effort to overturn the statute would take “hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
He and one of his co-counsels, Clark M. Neily III, are donating their services. A third counsel, Alan Gura, is charging a reduced rate.
Before they filed the suit in February 2003, the lawyers recruited six plaintiffs, D.C. residents who wanted to have loaded guns in their homes.
The lawyers looked for a diverse, law-abiding group, Levy told the Post.
“No Loony tunes,” Levy said. “You know, you don’t want the guy who just signed up for the militia. And no criminal records.”
The suit was rejected in U.S. District Court, but upheld on appeal by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
The appeals court ruled that only one of the six plaintiffs, Dick Anthony Heller, a security officer at the Thurgood Marshall Judicial Center in Washington, had standing in the case.
A second-career lawyer, Levy had practical experience with both the District Court and the Court of Appeals, as he was a law clerk at each of the courts in the 1990s after his graduation from George Mason University School of law in 1994.
Levy came to the law from business.
After receiving his Ph.D. from American University in 1966, he founded CDA Investment Technologies, provider of financial information.
He sold the company for millions in 1986 and remained on as CEO until 1991 when he entered law school.
Levy is a senior fellow in constitutional studies at the Cato Institute. He’s on the board of the institute, which is a libertarian research foundation. In addition, he’s on the board of the George Mason School of Law.
Levy is also on the board of the Federalist Society, a group whose membership includes Supreme Court justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia.
Judge Laurence H. Silberman, another Federalist Society member, wrote the 58-page opinion for the Court of Appeals in the D.C. gun case.
A conservative, Silberman has close ties to the Supreme Court, having sent at least 20 of his law clerks on to clerk there. And he served with Thomas when Thomas was on the Court of Appeals.
2 Comments
#1. Dave 11.27.2007
It is nice to be able to see that someone actually genuinly appreciates the U.S. Constitution. And doesn’t use it for a cheap roll of toilet paper
#2. Peter 11.27.2007
Hooray for Mister Levy!
We The People need more advocates of enumerated Rights!
Who is going to take on the Patriot Act?
And the War on Drugs?
Private ownership of firearms isn’t the only issue that needs to be addressed. Admittedly, this one is pretty easy, since this is, as I mentioned earlier, an enumerated Right, and the Framers not only left us with the Second Amendment, they also left us many letters, etc., which certainly makes their intentions crystal clear.
Good job, Mr. Levy
Leave a Comment