A man who was blocked from opening a gun store in California asked the Supreme Court this week to review his case, saying Alameda County’s prohibition violates the Second Amendment right to bear arms.

John Teixeira filed an appeal to the high court Monday, according to his attorney Alan Gura.

“When courts no longer require the government to justify its infringement of a fundamental right, the ‘right’ has ceased to exist,” the appeal to the Supreme Court reads. “And if any regulatory history automatically negated a right to engage in the regulated activity, there would be no rights at all.”

The county denied Mr. Teixeira a permit to open a gun story because it would have violated an ordinance requiring firearms dealerships to be 500 feet away from residential areas, schools, day cares, liquor stores and establishments, and other gun shops.