that restrict or ban the acquisition or ownership of certain types of firearms by the general population, and laws that restrict the carrying of firearms by private citizens in public places have largely been upheld on the basis of intermediate scrutiny. In many of these cases, such laws have survived intermediate scrutiny on the basis that the government is furthering an "important interest in public safety" in enacting laws that constrain the individual right to keep and bear arms under the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution. The United States Supreme Court in its 2008 District of Columbia v. Heller decision confirmed that the right to "keep and bear arms" is an individual right, but also caveated that the Second Amendment is not necessarily "a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner." However, outright bans on acquiring, possessing and carrying any and all types of firearms in Illinois, the District of Columbia and in various cities and counties (notably Chicago and San Francisco) have been struck down, failing to survive intermediate scrutiny where the courts determined that the government overreached in furthering its interest in public safety by completely banning private citizens from obtaining or possessing firearms or carrying firearms in public. "Intermediate" versus "heightened" The phrase "heightened scrutiny" has been used interchangeably with "intermediate scrutiny" but it is unclear if the two are actually legally interchangeable. In Witt v. Department of the Air Force, 527 F.3d 806 (9th Cir. 2008), the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the law commonly known as "don't ask, don't tell" (DADT) was subject to "heightened" scrutiny based on its analysis of Lawrence. The court articulated a three-pronged test for heightened scrutiny. To pass, the law "must advance an important governmental interest, the intrusion must significantly further that interest, and the intrusion must be necessary to further that interest". This differs from the "substantially related to important governmental interests" two-prong test for "intermediate" scrutiny. As the Obama administration chose not to appeal Witt to the Supreme Court, it is binding precedent on the Ninth Circuit and it has been cited as such in Log Cabin Republicans v. United States (LCR), another case challenging the constitutionality of DADT. The District court in LCR applied the three-pronged test in ruling DADT unconstitutional. The administration appealed this decision to the Ninth Circuit. In December 2010 DADT was