For second time, Supreme Court temporarily allows 'ghost gun' regulations
Ghost gun kits provide parts to make homemade untraceable guns without serial numbers. Image from Shutterstock.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Biden administration to temporarily enforce regulations that permit tracing of homemade “ghost guns,” the second time that the full court has acted in a three-month period.
The Supreme Court revived the regulations after Justice Samuel Alito temporarily allowed enforcement earlier this month.
SCOTUSblog, Courthouse News Service and Reuters have coverage.
The Supreme Court’s Oct. 16 order vacated an injunction by U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor of the Northern District of Texas.
O’Connor has twice prevented the regulations from taking effect. He issued the injunction in September after vacating the regulations in June. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at New Orleans had upheld Reed’s orders, although it said the injunction applied only to the two plaintiffs in the case.
The Supreme Court had stayed Reed’s earlier decision in a 5-4 vote in August. There were no dissents to the Supreme Court’s latest order.
U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar had argued that the lower courts “effectively countermanded” the Supreme Court’s August order and it should not “tolerate such circumvention.”
Ghost gun kits provide parts to make homemade untraceable guns without serial numbers. The regulations require makers and sellers of the kits and gun parts to add serial numbers to the products, keep transfer records and conduct background checks of buyers.
The case is Garland v. Blackhawk Manufacturing Group.
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