By Jason A. Davis, The Davis Law Firm
Picture this: it’s June 2008, and the U.S. Supreme Court just dropped District of Columbia v. Heller (554 U.S. 570), declaring the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to keep firearms for self-defense. The legal world is electric, and in Long Beach, California, Chuck Michel and I are grinning like kids in a candy store, ready to test this new precedent. In fact, we had already prepared a lawsuit and were only waiting for the Supreme Court decision to be released. Our target? The San Francisco Housing Authority’s (SFHA) iron-fisted ban on firearms in public housing leaves residents defenseless in some of the city’s roughest neighborhoods. Enter Guy Montag Doe v. San Francisco Housing Authority (Case No. 3:08-cv-03112-TEH, N.D. Cal. 2008)—a case that wasn’t just about guns, but about sneaking in a bit of literary mischief while fighting for civil rights.
Naming a plaintiff in a civil rights case is serious business, especially when they’re a public housing resident fearing eviction or prosecution for challenging the system. Our lead plaintiff, a brave homosexual man in SFHA’s Valencia Gardens, needed anonymity to shield against retaliation. A plain “John Doe” would’ve sufficed, but Chuck and I, lovers of law and a good laugh, wanted to have some fun. We decided to slip in an Easter egg that would tickle literature buffs and liberty lovers alike.
Enter Guy Montag Doe. If the name rings a bell, it’s because Guy Montag is the fireman-turned-rebel from Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, a dystopian tale where books are torched, and free thought is crushed. Montag’s shift from enforcer to freedom fighter was the perfect parallel for our plaintiff’s stand against the SFHA’s authoritarian firearms ban, which we saw as a modern-day book-burning, stripping residents of their Second Amendment rights. The SFHA’s lease rules (paragraphs 14-15), Valencia Gardens House Rule 1.9, and San Francisco Police Code Section 617 were the firehoses, and we were ready to douse them. But some worried that straying from the standard “Doe” or “Roe” might raise judicial eyebrows, so we tacked on “Doe” to keep it legit. Guy Montag Doe was born—a nod to Bradbury’s hero with a wink to legal tradition, and a whole lot of fun.
Lest you think Guy Montag Doe was our first foray into legal hijinks, let me take you back to Hunt v. Lockyer (Case No. 03-55995, 9th Cir. 2003), another Second Amendment case with a playful jab. In the complaint, a cheeky allegation was slipped in: “California is on the far left coast,” a not-so-subtle dig at the state’s left-leaning politics. We figured it was a throwaway quip, but to our delight, the State of California, in their answer, admitted the allegation was correct! Picture us cracking a smile in the office—California’s lawyers, wittingly or not, owned the “far left coast” label. The “Guy Montag” Easter egg was just the latest in our tradition of mixing serious advocacy with a smirk.
Filed the day after Heller landed, our lawsuit took aim at the SFHA, its executives, the City of San Francisco, Mayor Gavin Newsom, and the John Stewart Company, which ran Valencia Gardens. The SFHA’s rules were brutal: no guns allowed, or face eviction. San Francisco’s Police Code Section 617 piled on, banning firearms on all city property, including public housing. For our plaintiff, living in a high-crime area rife with hate crimes, this wasn’t just a policy—it was a denial of his constitutional right to protect himself.
We argued Heller’s individual Second Amendment right applied to public housing residents, invoking the Fourteenth Amendment to extend it against state and local governments (a question later resolved in McDonald v. City of Chicago, 561 U.S. 742 (2010)). The Ninth Circuit’s pre-Heller rulings, like Silveira v. Lockyer (312 F.3d 1052 (9th Cir. 2002)), were a hurdle, but Heller was our flamethrower. With the NRA and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms as co-plaintiffs, we were ready to set San Francisco’s gun control regime ablaze.
The “Guy Montag” name wasn’t just a lark—it was a strategic spark. In Fahrenheit 451, Montag’s rebellion starts with a hidden book before he torches the system. Our plaintiff’s challenge was similar: a lone resident, backed by a crack legal team and major advocacy groups, taking on a city to restore a fundamental right. The pseudonym was our hidden book, a nod to those who’d catch Bradbury’s reference and grin at the irony of a “fireman” fighting to extinguish an unconstitutional policy.
We had a blast planting this Easter egg. In the office, we debated whether the judge or opposing counsel would spot the literary nod. Would they see the SFHA as the book-burning fire department, with us as the rebels smuggling forbidden liberties? It was a moment of levity in the high-stakes world of constitutional law, a reminder that advocacy can be serious and playful. And, it was a moment that was quickly caught by gun rights advocates who called in to voice their support for the litigation and inquire about the source of the name.
The case didn’t need a trial to win. By early 2009, the SFHA saw the flames on the horizon and settled. They revised their lease agreements and house rules to allow public housing residents to keep firearms for self-defense, provided they followed federal and state laws. It was a clean victory: no more blanket bans, no more eviction threats for exercising a constitutional right. The settlement dodged a risky Ninth Circuit ruling, ensuring our clients, like Guy Montag Doe, could sleep safer.
San Francisco’s Police Code Section 617 lingered for other city properties, but its hold on public housing was ashes. The win sparked challenges to similar bans nationwide, proving even a gun-control stronghold like San Francisco couldn’t douse the Second Amendment post-Heller. !
For Chuck and me, this case was a love letter to lawyering. We relished wielding Heller like a flamethrower, fighting for vulnerable residents, and sneaking in a literary Easter egg that made us chuckle. From the “far left coast” jab in Hunt v. Lockyer to “Guy Montag Doe,” we’ve always believed advocacy can blend gravitas with glee. The pseudonym was our way of saying: we’re dead serious about civil rights, but we’re not above a playful wink. Here’s to Guy Montag Doe, the pseudonymous hero who stood up to the SFHA’s firemen. Here’s to the clients who trusted us, and to the law that lets us fight with a smirk. And here’s to the next case— we’re always ready to light the next spark, Easter egg and all.
Jason A. Davis is the principal attorney at The Davis Law Firm (www.calgunlawyers.com) and Chuck Michel is a partner at Michel & Associates, APC (www.MichelLawyers.com). Both practice in Second Amendment and civil rights litigation. Both hope to continue to have fun and
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