Somewhere in San Jose City Hall right now, a city attorney is staring at a letter from the Justice Department and doing the kind of math no lawyer enjoys. By 5:00 p.m. Eastern tomorrow, the city has to pick up the phone and explain why it charges $1,591 for a constitutional right — or get sued by the United States of America.
We’d love to hear how that call starts. “Hello, DOJ? Yes, about the sixteen hundred dollars… has anyone considered that freedom isn’t free?”
Regular readers will remember this racket. We covered San Jose’s $1,591 carry-permit “cover charge” back in June — a toll booth parked squarely in front of the Second Amendment. The city shrugged and kept collecting. Well, the bill collector just showed up, and she brought the entire Civil Rights Division with her.
The Bill Collector Has Subpoena Power
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon sent a warning letter last week to Mayor Matt Mahan, Police Chief Paul Joseph, and City Attorney Susana Alcala Wood. The terms are simple: contact the DOJ’s new Second Amendment Section by 5:00 p.m. ET on September 15 to discuss a settlement, or the United States sues San Jose and its police department.
“Constitutional rights aren’t for sale,” Dhillon wrote. “Charging $1,600 to carry a firearm outside the home is unconscionable and unconstitutional.”
Now, the numbers — because the numbers are the comedy here. San Francisco, of all places, charges $144 for the same permit. Berkeley charges about $600. Santa Clara County — the county San Jose sits in — charges about $800. San Jose charges $1,591 just for the application. Add the mandatory training, the psych evaluation, and the fingerprinting, and the real cost blows past $2,000.
The permit costs more than a perfectly good pistol. We’re buying our rights back at retail, plus tax.
We Tried Charging for Rights Once Before
Here’s the thing about charging admission to a constitutional right: America has been down this road. It was called the poll tax. Virginia’s was $1.50. It was so obviously un-American that we passed an entire constitutional amendment — the 24th — to kill it. San Jose apparently read that chapter of history and said, “A dollar fifty? Amateurs. Add three zeros.”
And if a city can charge $1,591 to carry a firearm, why stop there? Charge $1,591 to attend church. $1,591 to start a blog the mayor doesn’t like. $1,591 to remain silent during questioning — talking stays free, but the good rights cost extra.
We all know how blue-city permitting works. But you — if you live in San Jose and want to carry legally — you’re two grand out of pocket before you’ve bought a holster. For a right the Supreme Court says you already own.
Two Doors and a Clock
So what happens at 5:01 tomorrow afternoon? San Jose has exactly two doors.
Door number one: the city calls, settles, and quietly reprices liberty at something closer to San Francisco’s $144. That’s the Los Angeles ending — the DOJ already sued the L.A. County Sheriff over carry-permit delays, the county settled, and wouldn’t you know it, applications suddenly started moving. It’s amazing how efficient a bureaucracy becomes once it’s sitting in the defendant’s chair.
Door number two: the city lawyers up and fights. And this is where San Jose should read the fine print, because the Supreme Court already told everyone how this ends. Bruen — the 2022 ruling that killed “may issue” — specifically warned that even shall-issue systems are open to challenge over “exorbitant fees” and “lengthy wait times.” That’s not a hint. That’s the answer key, published four years before the test.
Here’s the part city hall should really be sweating: this letter didn’t come from some dusty desk in the basement. It came from a brand-new Second Amendment Section inside the Civil Rights Division. The government doesn’t build a whole section for one letter. Sections need caseloads. Every overpriced permit counter in America — looking at you, Berkeley — should assume it’s somewhere on the list.
Our prediction? San Jose blinks. Cities talk tough right up until the discovery requests arrive, and no mayor wants to explain under oath how the price of a constitutional right came out to exactly $1,591 — like a scratch-and-dent sale on the Bill of Rights.
Sometime around 4:45 tomorrow afternoon, somebody in that city attorney’s office is going to discover that constitutional rights were affordable all along.
Tick tock, San Jose.
