January 6, 2025

Zach Pekelis Discusses Gun Safety Lawsuit Before Washington Supreme Court for Law360 “Washington Cases to Watch in 2025”

Law360 recently spoke with Pacifica Partner Zach Pekelis for a story discussing cases to watch in Washington State courts this year. Zach offered legal analysis of a case before the Washington Supreme Court involving a challenge to an important gun safety law enacted by the Legislature in 2022.

State of Washington v. Gator’s Custom Guns concerns a state law prohibiting the manufacture and sale of large-capacity gun magazines. The Washington Attorney General’s Office (AGO) sued Gator’s Custom Guns for illegally selling thousands of illegal magazines after the law went into effect. Last year, a Cowlitz County Superior Court Judge found the law unconstitutional and blocked the state from enforcing the law. Just hours later, at AGO’s request, the Washington Supreme Court Commissioner put the judge’s injunction on hold pending appeal. Briefing in the Supreme Court is now complete, and the Supreme Court hears argument in the case on January 14, 2025.

Zach has successfully defended gun safety laws in Washington and Oregon (including magazine size restrictions) against legal challenges brought by the gun lobby. In the Gator’s Custom Guns case, Pacifica client the Alliance for Gun Responsibility filed an amicus brief with the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence urging the Court to uphold the law as constitutional. (Zach and Pacifica associate Scott Ferron authored the amicus brief.)

Zach told Law360 Washington Courts Reporter Rachel Riley that he believes the Supreme Court will reverse the lower court’s decision.

“If the Supreme Court addresses the Second Amendment issue, I’m hopeful that it will join the consensus around the country of finding that these [state laws] are perfectly consistent with the Second Amendment and the nation’s history of firearm regulation,” Zach said. Four federal courts of appeal have recently rejected Second Amendment challenges to magazine size restrictions, as have federal district courts in Washington, Oregon, and elsewhere.

Zach also noted that the Gator’s Custom Guns case involves a challenge under the Washington State Constitution’s right to bear arms codified in Article I, Section 24. The Washington Supreme Court has made clear that whether a firearm regulation violates the state constitution involves different standards than what courts apply under the Second Amendment.

“What I think is really important here is that state constitutionalism is alive and well,” Pekelis told Law360. “Even when it has a federal analogue like the Second Amendment, the state courts have an independent obligation to interpret their constitution consistent with the jurisprudence of the state, not just parrot the federal constitutional standards, which of course have changed quite dramatically in just the last few years.”

Follow this link to read the full story on Law360.com (subscription required).