Parents who sign up to be foster families don’t cede their Second Amendment rights, a Wisconsin appeals court has ruled.
The case involved Brian and Katie Lafferty, who clashed with Wisconsin’s Department of Children and Families and a local county human services department. The officials had argued the parents signed away their gun rights when they applied to foster youths.
The three-judge panel said that was wrong.
“We conclude the Laffertys did not waive their constitutional rights by volunteering to serve as foster parents,” wrote Judge Maria Lazar.
The county had initially imposed demands that those seeking to be licensed as foster families with concealed-carry permits could not carry their guns when in the presence of foster children; must store their guns behind two locks, with ammunition kept in a separate place; and must disclose all of their firearms and their locations to the county.
In the years since the court battle began, the county had tried to retreat on some of those rules, including the restrictions on carrying firearms in the presence of foster children. The county also retreated on the two-lock rule.
The latest iteration required that firearms be stored unloaded and locked away from foster children, and that ammunition be in a separate location altogether.
The appeals court scolded the county for playing games with the courts over the changes, moving the goalposts for the judges.
The court then proceeded to strike down much of what was left in the county’s rules.
In particular, the court erased the rule requiring firearms to be unloaded when stored in a safe, saying that conflicted with the Second Amendment’s guarantee of a firearm for ready personal defense.
The judges based their ruling on the evolving cases out of the U.S. Supreme Court, which have found a personal right to bear arms in the Second Amendment — and said any restrictions on that right must be the kind that would have been recognizable to those that wrote and ratified the amendment.
Washington County had argued that founding-era laws on gunpowder storage gave a justification for the gun lock and ammunition storage rules.
But Judge Lazar said that was a poor analogy to today’s modern ammunition, and besides there were no founding-era laws that specifically restricted loaded guns in homes.
The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms hailed the ruling.
“This is not the first time we’ve seen foster parents facing unfair, and ultimately unconstitutional, restrictions on their Second Amendment rights,” said Alan Gottlieb, the committee’s chairman. “Each time a court rules on this issue, correcting state agency overreach, the rights of law-abiding citizens who are also foster parents are strengthened that much more.”
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