[V]ermont sportsmen’s groups have hired a Washington, D.C., law firm well-known for its work on gun rights and other conservative causes to lead their fight against a law passed this year banning high-capacity gun magazines.
David Thompson, the managing partner of litigation firm Cooper and Kirk, was named lead counsel on the case in filings submitted to the Washington County court last month. Two other lawyers from the firm, Nicole Moss and John Ohlendorf, were also admitted to the case.
The state has yet to respond to the complaint filed by Vermont attorney and Republican operative Brady Toensing on behalf of sportsmen’s groups and firearms dealers. Its deadline is June 25.
The complaint says that the ban on high-capacity magazines, signed by Gov. Phil Scott on the Statehouse steps in April, violates Article 16 of the Vermont Constitution, which states that “people have the right to bear arms for the defence of themselves and the state.”
It asks for a declaration that the high-capacity magazine ban is unconstitutional and an injunction to prevent state authorities from enforcing the law.
A Massachusetts ban on some high-powered rifles and high-capacity magazines was recently upheld after a legal challenge on its constitutionality.
“The AR-15 and its analogs, along with large capacity magazines, are simply not weapons within the original meaning of the individual constitutional right to ‘bear arms,’” Judge William Young said.
However, that challenge was based on the federal Constitution. Vermont Sen. Joe Benning, R-Caledonia, and others who opposed the gun restrictions have argued that the Vermont Constitution offers significantly stronger protections of the right to bear arms than the U.S. Constitution.
Toensing, an attorney for the Washington. D.C., firm diGenova and Toensing, said his firm had previously worked with Cooper and Kirk on cases involving constitutional law.
“They are pre-eminent nationally recognized constitutional law experts, and the go-to lawyers that go-to lawyers go to,” Toensing said in an interview. “And they’ve been representing the NRA for more than 30 years.”
Toensing declined to say who is funding the case. “I don’t answer questions like that,” he said.
The NRA’s legal arm has come out in support of the legal challenge and says it is ”pleased to have been able to support the plaintiffs in this fight,” though a spokesperson declined to say earlier this year whether that included financial backing.
The legal fight could be expensive. Thompson charged rates ranging from $550 to $975 an hour while doing legal work for an Arkansas Supreme Court justice, according to documents obtained by Arkansas Times.
Thompson did not return calls seeking comment for this article.
Charles Cooper, the founder of Cooper and Kirk, is one of the most prominent conservative lawyers in Washington. He is a personal friend of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a fellow Alabaman, and advised former Attorney General John Ashcroft when he faced inquiries over the detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He was among the top candidates to become President Donald Trump’s solicitor general.
Cooper has also been called “the NRA’s Top Outside Lawyer.” The firm has argued some of the gun-rights group’s highest profile cases, including a case before the Supreme Court challenging a federal law restricting the sale of handguns to people under 21.
The firm has also worked on various high-profile cases involving corporations and conservative causes, such as an effort to eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry in California and the defense of laws in Florida preventing felons from voting. Thompson was also part of a team that represented Duke lacrosse players in relation to a high-profile sexual assault case.
In the case in Vermont, the state is being represented by Solicitor General Ben Battles and Assistant Attorneys General David Boyd and John Alexander.
The complainants in the case are the Vermont Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs, which is Vermont’s designated NRA association, along with the Vermont State Rifle and Pistol Association, Powderhorn Outdoor Sports Center, Locust Creek Outfitters and Leah Stewart, a gun owner.
The defendants on behalf of the state are Vermont State Police Chief Matthew Birmingham, Attorney General TJ Donovan, Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George and Windsor County State’s Attorney David Cahill.
Clarification: The Vermont Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs is not funded by the NRA, as a previous version of this article suggested. It is funded by membership fees, events and donations. The organization previously administered grants from the NRA and is the state’s designated NRA association.
