B.L.U.F.
This is the frames and receivers rule.
(650 words)
On October 5th, 2023, the DoJ applied on the Supreme Court’s emergency docket for the court to vacate the injunction issued by the N.D. Texas.
As we have discussed for the circuit courts, the Supreme Court has an “administrative panel”. Each circuit court has a Justice charged with overseeing that circuit. Overseeing is a massive overstatement.
When a case is appealed out of the circuit to the Supreme Court, it can come as a merits-based request for certiorari, or it can come as an emergency request. If it is an emergency request, it goes to the Justice that oversees that circuit. In this case, it is Justice Alito.
The state requested that the injunction issued in the N.D. Texas be vacated pending appeal. This is different language than I am used to seeing. Normally, the request is for a “stay pending appeal”. My understanding is that vacating a finding is to throw it out.
Justice Alito issued a temporary stay for 10 days to allow the parties to file briefs. You can expect the usual suspects to dog pile as well.
What Was Said
—Merrick B. Garland, Attorney General, et al., Applicants v. Blackhawk Manufacturing Group, Inc., et al., No. 23A302 (U.S.)
Emphasis added.
It is my belief that the state is playing with fire here. The options the Supreme Court has are to vacate the injunction, stay the injunction pending appeal, deny the request. The Supreme Court is not going to vacate the injunction at this stage. That leaves staying the injunction and denying the request.
If the court stays the injunction pending appeal, The People get screwed, but the case just moves forward. The Fifth Circuit is not going to sit on the case but uphold the injunction. They’ve done it once before. That means it comes right back to the Supreme Court.
Once it is back at the Supreme Court, the court is going to have already looked at Chevron. The court has expressed a strong desire to pull the deep state back inline with the Constitution. Meaning that the Court could decide for The People on reasons apart from the Second Amendment protections.
The court could also use this as a starting point for taking the NFA and GCA apart at the seams. Again, a massive loose for the state.
If the Supreme Court denies this request for a vacatur then this is just a single decision by a single district court. As we discussed in the article on citations: Citations, what do they mean?, district court opinions are only good for a small area. Even though the injunction is nationwide, there is no new case law.
This is much better than the Supreme Court creating new case law, saying that the ATF can’t create new law. I.e., this one case could sink the pistol brace rule, the frame and receiver rule, the FFL rule, and more.
Always a good thing to receive………the possibility of really good news with the morning coffee. Thanks Awa. You’re a machine.
These reports are informative tho to my knuckle dragging mind a bit overwhelmed.. one little knit picky item – acynms or initials such as N.D. . Where I work is chock full of this stuff and there is no list of wtf( heh heh) they mean. People throw them in like “everyone knows this” – SLA, ODP, LDAP, PLD, and on and on..and I end up thinking what are they talking about??? Just my thots.. keep it up Sir.
Nice
Watching this one with interest