Elhert v. Settle

Defending Virginia’s background check requirement.

Court: Supreme Court of Virginia

Issues at Stake: Age restrictions; Background checks

As it considered a partial injunction to Virginia’s background checks law under the state constitution, the Virginia Supreme Court had an opportunity to establish how Virginia courts should analyze constitutional firearms cases in the future.

Summary: Elhert v. Settle is a challenge to Virginia’s law requiring background checks on private sales of firearms, alleging that the law violates the Virginia Constitution’s equivalent to the Second Amendment. The circuit court enjoined the law’s application to 18-to-20 year olds, and in doing so applied a dangerous, outlier approach to constitutional analysis.

Everytown for Gun Safety, together with Giffords Law Center, filed a brief arguing that the Virginia courts should use the two-step Second Amendment test, accepted throughout the federal courts, to analyze constitutional challenges.

Decision: On December 10, 2020, the Virginia Supreme Court denied the government’s petitions for review, without “expressing any opinion on the ultimate merits of the Plaintiffs’ claims” or addressing the appropriate analysis for constitutional firearms cases.

Case Documents