(DCWatchdog.com) – President Joe Biden scored a rare judicial win, at least temporarily, in his attempts to impose gun control limiting Americans’ Second Amendment rights after the US Supreme Court ruled to revive his restrictions on “ghost guns.”
The term “ghost guns” typically describes firearms assembled from do-it-yourself kits or home-produced parts with no serial production numbers and are thus hard to trace.
In a 5-4 ruling on Tuesday, the US Supreme Court justices decided to put on hold a decision by a lower court that had invalidated Biden’s ghost gun regulation.
The re-start of the regulation will be in effect while the Biden administration continues its appeal of the lower court’s ruling, The Hill reports.
“The decision hands a victory to Biden, at least for now,” the centrist news outlet comments.
Two conservative justices, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett, back the three liberals on the bench to temporarily revive the Biden anti-ghost gun policy.
Conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh voted against it.
The case is now set to continue in a lower appeals court, the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals, but the ultimate ruling would likely end up at the US Supreme Court.
The disputed restrictions on ghost guns were implemented last year by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) as part of the president’s crackdown on that specific type of firearm.
The new rule altered the federal law definition of a firearm to include unfinished parts, such as handgun frames or long gun receivers, to make them easily trackable. It also provided for background checks for selling gun parts, AP reports, as cited by Newsmax.
In June, a conservative Texas US judge decided the restrictions exceeded the ATF’s authority, ruling in favor of five firms making or selling guns, two advocacy groups, and two private persons owning firearms.
Later, the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals narrowed the decision. Tuesday’s Supreme Court ruling paused the rest of the Texas judge’s decision.
“We’re deeply disappointed… [but] we’re still confident that we will yet again defeat ATF and its unlawful rule,” reacted Cody Wisniewski, general counsel at Firearms Policy Coalition Action Foundation, representing the challengers.
NEW: The Supreme Court revived the Biden administration’s restrictions on so-called ghost guns in a 5-4 emergency ruling, agreeing to pause a lower court’s decision, which invalidated the regulation nationwide, as the administration continues its appeal.https://t.co/GcsVdPJU3L
— The Hill (@thehill) August 8, 2023
