The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday voted to allow President Joe Biden’s Final Rule reclassifying some gun parts as “firearms” to stand while the matter plays out in an appeals court.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday voted to allow President Joe Biden’s Final Rule reclassifying some gun parts as “firearms” to stand while the matter plays out in an appeals court. The newest court ruling on the so-called “ghost gun” rule came after Justice Samuel Alito twice stayed a federal judge’s injunction that had blocked the rule from being enforced during an appeal of the earlier ruling finding the “law” to be unconstitutional.
The Supreme Court action in Garland v. VanDerStok—a surprise to many—came on a 5-4 vote, with Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh dissenting. Two of the “conservative members of the court—Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Comey Barrett—voted to allow the rule to remain in force, as did liberal Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.
On June 30, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor, a George W. Bush appointee, vacated the rule, noting in his lengthy ruling that the federal government simply does not have regulatory power over firearms parts, regardless of the Justice Department’s apparent belief that it does possess such authority. Because of the Supreme Court action, the Final Rule will again be in effect while the federal government appeals the ruling to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.
By Mark Chesnut
