DOJ Sues Glendale Over $1,078 Concealed Carry Fee

Last updated November 2026 · By Nick Hall, who tracks federal gun-rights enforcement and covered DOJ’s San Jose carry fee suit for USA Gun Shop

Quick take: The Justice Department sued Glendale, California on November 9 over a concealed carry fee that was $100 last fiscal year and is $1,078 now. DOJ says that fee, plus a psych exam, three reference checks and a social media review, turns a shall-issue permit into a may-issue one. It is a complaint, not a ruling, and Glendale’s fees still apply today.

• What happened: The United States sued the City of Glendale in the Central District of California on November 9, 2026, case 2:26-cv-13098.
• Why it matters: DOJ puts the total cost of a first Glendale carry license at $1,971 to $2,106 once fingerprints, training and the psych evaluation are added.
• What’s next: Glendale has to answer the complaint, and its police department still listed the $1,078 fee on its application page on November 11.
• Who to watch: Barry K. Arrington, chief of the Civil Rights Division’s Second Amendment Section, who signed the complaint.

Glendale got a warning first. Twelve days before the suit, the Civil Rights Division sent the mayor, the police chief and the city attorney a letter with a deadline on it. I read that letter, the 15-page complaint and DOJ’s release side by side, and the comparison with DOJ’s own San Jose case is where this one gets interesting.

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What Glendale Charges for a Concealed Carry License

The headline number is the city’s own fee. According to the complaint, a first-time applicant “must pay an outrageous $1,078.00 application fee,” half when the application goes in and half after approval. A renewal costs $826, split the same way.

That is only the city’s cut. The police department’s fee page adds a $93 state DOJ fingerprinting fee plus whatever the Live Scan provider charges, $300 to $435 for the required training and range qualification, and about $500 for the psych evaluation. First-timers sit a 16-hour course. Renewals sit an eight-hour one.

Add it up and DOJ’s November 9 release puts a first license at $1,971 to $2,106 and a renewal at $1,271 to $1,406. The release says the department charged “only a $100 fee for first-time applicants” the previous fiscal year.

The complaint does the monthly math too. Glendale renewals last two years, so DOJ says residents pay “approximately $54.17 per month” to carry, and it sets that against the $1.50 poll tax the Supreme Court threw out in 1966.

Even the department admits the process is a slog. Its own application page calls it “a long, tedious, and meticulous process” with “corresponding costs per step,” and the complaint lists 15 steps from online application to pickup.

The October 28 Letter That Came First

This suit did not come out of nowhere. On October 28, then-Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon posted a two-page letter addressed to Mayor Ardashes Kassakhian, Police Chief Robert William and City Attorney Michael Garcia, headed “Notice of Suit.”

The letter said the city had raised the initial fee “from $100 to $1,078” and called the whole setup “one of the most expensive CCW application schemes in the nation.” It said DOJ would consider holding off if Glendale agreed to pre-suit talks, with a deadline of 5:00 p.m. Eastern on November 4.

The price of a deal was steep. Glendale would have had to stop collecting the fees, drop its “may-issue” steps, admit both were unconstitutional and sign a court-enforceable consent decree. Dhillon’s post summed it up in two words: “Tick tock!”

Dhillon resigned on November 5, eight days after signing that letter, which we covered in Harmeet Dhillon’s exit from Civil Rights. The complaint filed four days later carries Jesus A. Osete’s name as Acting Assistant Attorney General. It never mentions the letter, and it does not say whether Glendale ever replied.

Why DOJ Says Glendale Is Really May-Issue

The fee gets the headline, but the complaint spends more time on discretion. DOJ argues that three reference checks, a review of social media and a psych exam “convert its shall-issue scheme into a may-issue one.”

For the psych exam, it leans on Justice Kavanaugh’s Bruen concurrence, which flagged requirements that invite “open-ended discretion.” For social media, it cites the Second Circuit’s 2024 Antonyuk decision, which blocked a similar New York disclosure rule.

The renewal rule is the sharpest point. California law says a licensing authority can require a psych test on renewal “only if there is compelling evidence of a public safety concern to indicate that an assessment is necessary.” DOJ says Glendale’s policy “appears to impose a blanket requirement” on every renewal applicant anyway.

Osete’s line in the release goes straight at it: “The City of Glendale cannot impose unreasonable fees and unbridled discretion that undermines that core constitutional right.” The release adds that the department “does not publish any objective standards” for those checks.

Same San Jose Playbook, Bigger Ask

If this sounds familiar, it should. DOJ sued San Jose on September 16 over a $1,591 carry fee, the case we covered in DOJ’s San Jose CCW fee lawsuit, and then added the city’s gun insurance mandate 13 days later. Both cases rest on 34 U.S.C. 12601, the 1994 pattern-or-practice law, and both say the police enforcing the fee are the violation.

Here is the wrinkle. The Glendale complaint says the city charges “by far, the highest fees in the nation,” but in September DOJ said San Jose’s fee “is the highest in the nation.” San Jose’s $1,591 city fee is bigger than Glendale’s $1,078, so the claim leans on Glendale’s full stack of costs, not the city fee alone.

And the remedy DOJ wants goes further than a price cut. Beyond a declaratory judgment and a permanent injunction against the fees, the psych exam, the reference checks, the social media review and the residency requirement, it asks the court to make Glendale find every applicant it denied since the challenged rules took effect and tell them the city “may have denied the permit application on improper and unconstitutional grounds,” then invite them to reapply. Glendale would also have to offer back every psych exam and social media review it collected and destroy any that stay with the city.

What Glendale Applicants Should Do Now

Nothing has changed on the ground yet. A complaint is a list of allegations, no judge has ruled on any of it, and the docket through November 9 shows the complaint, a civil cover sheet and three notices of appearance, with no motion for emergency relief.

So the fees are live. The department’s application page still listed the $1,078 initial fee and the $826 renewal on November 11, and anyone who applies today pays them.

One more date to know. The complaint notes that AB 1948, effective January 1, 2027, lets a California license run up to three years, and says Glendale has not said whether its two-year licenses will get the extra year.

If you are going through the process anyway, the California gun laws rules on training and approved handguns still govern everything else, and our list of California CCW guns is a good place to start before you list a gun on the application.

$100 last year. $1,078 now. Same city, same permit, same right.

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• Complete Guide to Concealed Carry
• Harmeet Dhillon Resigns as DOJ Civil Rights Chief