By BILL BARROW

The Trump administration is suing the local government of Washington, D.C., over its gun laws, alleging that restrictions on certain semiautomatic weapons run afoul of Second Amendment rights.

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The U.S. Department of Justice filed its lawsuit Monday in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia, naming Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department and outgoing Chief of Police Pamela Smith as defendants and setting up another potentially seismic clash on how broadly the courts interpret individual gun possession rights.

“The United States of America brings this lawsuit to protect the rights that have been guaranteed for 234 years and which the Supreme Court has explicitly reaffirmed several times over the last two decades,” the Justice Department states.

It’s the second such lawsuit the administration has filed this month: The Justice Department also is suing the U.S. Virgin Islands, alleging the U.S. territory is obstructing and systematically denying American citizens the right to possess and carry guns.

It’s also the latest clash between the District of Columbia and the federal government, which launched an ongoing law enforcement intervention into the nation’s capital over the summer, which was meant to fight crime. The district’s attorney general is challenging the deployment of the National Guard to the city as part of the intervention in court.

In Washington, Metropolitan Police Department spokesman Sean Hickman said the agency does not comment on pending litigation.

The Justice Department asserts that the District is imposing unconstitutional bans on AR-15s and other semiautomatic weapons the administration says are legal to posses under the Supreme Court’s 2008 Heller precedent, which also originated from a dispute over weapons restrictions in the nation’s capital.

In that seminal case, the court ruled that private citizens have an individual right to own and operate weapons “in common use today,” regardless of whether they are part of what Second Amendment text refers to as a “well regulated militia.”

“There seems to us no doubt, on the basis of both text and history, that the Second Amendment conferred an individual right to keep and bear arms,” the majority reasoned. The justices added a caveat: “Of course, the right was not unlimited, just as the First Amendment’s right of free speech was not.”

The Justice Department argues that the District has gone too far in trying to limit weapons possession under that caveat. Administration lawyers emphasize the Heller reference to weapons “in common use today,” saying it applies to firearms that District of Columbia residents cannot now register. Those restrictions in turn subject residents to criminal penalties for unregistered firearms, the administration asserts.

“Specifically, the District denies law-abiding citizens the ability to register a wide variety of commonly used semi-automatic firearms, such as the Colt AR-15 series rifles, which is among the most popular of firearms in America, and a variety of other semi-automatic rifles and pistols that are in common use,” Justice Department lawyers write.

“D.C’s current semi-automatic firearms prohibition that bans many commonly used pistols, rifles or shotguns is based on little more than cosmetics, appearance, or the ability to attach accessories,” the suit continues, “and fails to take into account whether the prohibited weapon is ‘in common use today’ or that law-abiding citizens may use these weapons for lawful purposes protected by the Second Amendment.”

The Justice Department does not include any individual plaintiffs from Washington, D.C., alleging any violations of their constitutional rights. That’s different from the Heller case, which is named for Dick Heller, a Washingtonian who filed a civil lawsuit challenging the city’s handgun ban in 2003.

The administration argues in the suit that it has jurisdiction to challenge current District laws under the sweeping federal crime law of 1994.

By DAVID CRARY

NEW YORK (AP) — Florida’s Catholic bishops appealed to President Donald Trump on Monday to pause immigration enforcement activities during the Christmas holidays. The White House, in response, said it would be business as usual.

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The appeal was issued by Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski, and signed by seven other members of the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“The border has been secured. The initial work of identifying and removing dangerous criminals has been accomplished to a great degree,” Wenski wrote. “At this point, the maximum enforcement approach of treating irregular immigrants en masse means that now many of these arrest operations inevitably sweep up numbers of people who are not criminals but just here to work.”

“A climate of fear and anxiety is infecting not only the irregular migrant but also family members and neighbors who are legally in the country,” Wenski added.

“Since these effects are part of enforcement operations, we request that the government pause apprehension and round-up activities during the Christmas season. Such a pause would show a decent regard for the humanity of these families.”

Responding via email, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson did not mention the holiday season in her two-sentence reply.

“President Trump was elected based on his promise to the American people to deport criminal illegal aliens. And he’s keeping that promise,” Jackson wrote.

Wenski has established a reputation as an outspoken advocate of humane treatment for migrants. In September, for example, he joined other Catholic leaders on a panel at Georgetown University decrying the Trump administration’s hardline policies for tearing apart families, inciting fear and upending church life.

Wenski highlighted the contributions of immigrants to the country’s economy.

“If you ask people in agriculture, you ask in the service industry, you ask people in health care, you ask the people in the construction field, and they’ll tell you that some of their best workers are immigrants,” said Wenski. “Enforcement is always going to be part of any immigration policy, but we have to rationalize it and humanize it.”

Wenski joined the “Knights on Bikes” ministry, an initiative led by the Knights of Columbus that draws attention to the spiritual needs of people held at immigration detention centers, including the one in the Florida Everglades dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.” He recalled praying a rosary with the bikers in the scorching heat outside its walls. Days later, he got permission to celebrate Mass inside the facility.

“The fact that we invite these detainees to pray, even in this very dehumanizing situation, is a way of emphasizing and invoking their dignity,” he said.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Thousands of people were allegedly charged for visas by a Woodbury couple who didn’t provide the documents and instead spent the money on luxury cars, designer handbags and cosmetic surgeries, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said Monday.

Ellison sued Christian Palacios and Juan Diego Guevara Sanchez and the companies they own, alleging that the two  falsely advertised their non-immigrant tourist visa services. Ellison’s lawsuit says Palacios and Guevara Sanchez are married.

Ellison’s office said the investigation into the company stemmed from more than 100 consumer complaints.

“No one should be taken advantage of because they miss their family,” Ellison said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “But that’s what defendants did. They aggressively targeted people who had not seen their parents or siblings for years, offering to obtain tourist visas for people by submitting visa applications on their family members’ behalf. I filed this lawsuit so no one else is harmed or defrauded into giving up their savings, because someone saw people’s love of their families as a way to scam hard-working Minnesotans.”

In the lawsuit, Ellison asserts that the Woodbury couple and their Bloomington-based businesses — Nueva Vision Latinoamerica (also known as Nueva Vision), Nueva Vision Multiservicios LLC, and Multinacional Express LLC — defrauded thousands of customers by advertising that they would obtain tourist visas for their family members who live abroad.

Ellison said the couple charged customers several hundred to several thousand dollars each for a “family reunification” program, then often failed to submit visa applications as promised and failed to make consular appointments as promised.

The couple allegedly asked customers’ family members to send original passports to them and then frequently refused to return the passports unless customers paid hundreds of dollars more, effectively extorting them, Ellison’s office said.

In his complaint, Ellison said the couple allegedly used the money they made fraudulently to support a lavish lifestyle that included buying a BMW, a $183,000 Bentley, Versace handbags and cosmetic surgery.

A call to the Nueva Vision office late Monday afternoon was not immediately returned.

Ellison said anyone who has been victimized by the couple or their businesses can file a complaint by going to ag.state.mn.us and clicking on “File a complaint” (then select the Consumer Assistance Request Form).

His office can be reached by calling 651-296-3353 or 800-657-3787.

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By SAFIYAH RIDDLE

Vince Zampella, one of the creators behind such best-selling video games as “Call of Duty,” has died. He was 55.

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Video game company Electronic Arts said Zampella died Sunday. The company did not disclose a cause of death.

In 2010, Zampella founded Respawn Entertainment, a subsidiary of EA, and he also was the former chief executive of video game developer Infinity Ward, the studio behind the successful “Call of Duty” franchise.

A spokesperson for Electronic Arts said in a statement on Monday that Zampella’s influence on the video game industry was “profound and far-reaching.”

“A friend, colleague, leader and visionary creator, his work helped shape modern interactive entertainment and inspired millions of players and developers around the world. His legacy will continue to shape how games are made and how players connect for generations to come,” a company spokesperson wrote.

One of Zampella’s crowning achievements was the creation of the Call of Duty franchise, which has sold more than half a billion games worldwide.

NORTH LAS VEGAS, NV – NOVEMBER 04: Copies of “Call of Duty: Ghosts” are displayed during a launch event for the highly anticipated video game at a GameStop Corp. store on November 4, 2013 in North Las Vegas, Nevada. Video game publisher Activision released the 10th installment in the “Call of Duty” franchise at midnight on November 5. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

The first person shooter game debuted in 2003 as a World War II simulation and has sold over 500 million copies globally. Subsequent versions have delved into modern warfare and there is a live-action movie based on the game in production with Paramount Pictures.

In recent years, Zampella has been at the helm of the creation of the action adventure video games Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.