Supreme Court temporarily blocks 'ghost gun' ruling by federal judge

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: NBC News/Reuters

July 28, 2023, 9:48 PM EDT


Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on Friday temporarily blocked a lower court’s decision to strike down a regulation aimed at reining in privately made firearms known as “ghost guns” that are difficult for law enforcement to trace.

The action by Alito, who handles emergency matters arising from a group of states including Texas, effectively freezes the litigation as the court weighs a request on Thursday from President Joe Biden’s administration to reinstate the rule pending an appeal. Alito put the case on hold for one week, until Aug. 4, and gave the rule’s challengers until Aug. 2 to respond to the administration’s request.

The administration asked the justices to halt a Texas-based federal judge’s nationwide ruling that invalidated a Justice Department restriction on the sale of ghost gun kits while it appeals to the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The administration warned that allowing the judge’s ruling to stand would enable an “irreversible flow of large numbers of untraceable ghost guns into our nation’s communities.”

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-temporarily-blocks-ghost-gun-ruling-federal-judge-rcna97010

[2naSalit]

1. I am uncomfortable with that guy...

Making any decisions at this point.

[BumRushDaShow]

3. You and me both

It's just that he is assigned to doing emergency requests for that Circuit. I have been concerned with him also having been assigned to the 3rd Circuit (which is mine), although he pretty much stayed out of most of the nonsense suits (for the most part) hurled against here in PA in 2020 when I believe he was also assigned for this Circuit and he let the PA Supreme Court be when it came to their un-gerrymandering our Congressional seats. For FYI-

Circuit Assignments

It is ordered that the following allotment be made of The Chief Justice and the Associate Justices of this Court among the circuits, pursuant to Title 28, United States Code, Section 42 and that such allotment be entered of record, effective September 28, 2022.

For the District of Columbia Circuit - John G. Roberts, Jr., Chief Justice

For the First Circuit - Ketanji Brown Jackson, Associate Justice

(Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island)

For the Second Circuit - Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice

(Connecticut, New York, Vermont)

For the Third Circuit - Samuel A. Alito, Jr., Associate Justice

(Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virgin Islands)

For the Fourth Circuit - John G. Roberts, Jr., Chief Justice

(Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia, Virginia)

For the Fifth Circuit - Samuel A. Alito, Jr., Associate Justice

(Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas)

For the Sixth Circuit - Brett M. Kavanaugh, Associate Justice

(Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee)

For the Seventh Circuit - Amy Coney Barrett, Associate Justice

(Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin)

For the Eighth Circuit - Brett M. Kavanaugh, Associate Justice

(Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota)

For the Ninth Circuit - Elena Kagan, Associate Justice

(Alaska, Arizona, California, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Oregon, Montana, Nevada, Northern Mariana Islands, Washington)

For the Tenth Circuit - Neil M. Gorsuch, Associate Justice

(Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah, Wyoming)

For the Eleventh Circuit - Clarence Thomas, Associate Justice

(Alabama, Florida, Georgia)

For the Federal Circuit - John G. Roberts, Jr., Chief Justice.

https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/circuitassignments.aspx

[2naSalit]

6. Indeed.

I'm in the 9th and there hasn't been a dust up on much of anything with them in some time.

Thanks for the list, I didn't know who was assigned to my District.

[BumRushDaShow]

8. Justice Kagan is a busy Justice for the 9th!

[ancianita]

11. It has totally pissed me off that the right wing male justices are "allotted" two districts each.

Some of the worst rulings have been made through the 5th Circuit. And Thomas has Florida's 11th Circuit.

[Polybius]

13. It's by seniority

I'm sure they will retire by 2030, hopefully

[FBaggins]

19. And the size of the district

Kagan probably has more business from the 9th than any two circuits combined

[BumRushDaShow]

14. Well there are some interesting reasons why they are assigned to where they are assigned

one of the reasons being that in their previous careers, they worked out of and/or were from those states in those regions. But the other criteria is that they often pick up/are assigned the Circuit for the Justice who they were replacing.

Thomas is from GA and that is in the 11th Circuit which is what he has usually been assigned to cover. Breyer had been on the 1st as an Appellate judge before appointment to the SCOTUS so he had covered that circuit, and when he left, Jackson was assigned it (which wasn't too dissimilar for her as she clerked for him and had gone to Harvard where MA falls in that Circuit).

In the case of Alito, given he was from Jersey and had practiced there in the past, so he was assigned to pick up the 3rd Circuit caseload. But since he was replacing Sandra Day O'Connor and she did the 6th, there was a shuffle. Scalia had the 5th Circuit and that eventually got shifted to Alito as well once Scalia was out. I expect that since Barrett is from New Orleans, she may eventually get assigned the 5th once she has more experience under her belt (she is doing the 7th right now, which is where she was on the Court of Appeals before nomination to the SCOTUS).

Gorsuch was from CO and was assigned the 10th Circuit (which covers that state).

Sotomayor is a NYer and she eventually got shuffled into the 2nd Circuit (which covers NY), although there are other NYers like Kagan (but Sotomayor has some seniority) and Roberts.

The disparate assignments were Kagan picking up the 9th (which includes California), where Anthony Kennedy had originally been an Appellate judge there. Kavanaugh was also the odd Justice out doing the 8th.

Roberts as Chief picks up the D.C. Circuit and adjacent 4th Circuit (plus the Federal Circuit that only reviews specific types of cases).

Interesting blip about the 2020 assignments that hinted at some of the decisions for who they assign where (from SCOTUSBlog) - https://www.scotusblog.com/2020/11/court-issues-new-circuit-assignments-2/

A little less than a month after the confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the Supreme Court on Friday issued a new set of circuit justice assignments, which take effect immediately. Barrett was assigned to the 7th Circuit, where she served as a judge for three years before becoming a justice. Two other justices, Sonia Sotomayor and Neil Gorsuch, were also assigned for the first time to the circuits where they had previously served as judges – Sotomayor to the 2nd Circuit and Gorsuch to the 10th Circuit.

[ancianita]

15. Thank you. All this is logical re the right wing justices, but one doesn't have to like it.

As a former teacher I appreciate that you're DU's teacher of informative/analytical posts.

[BumRushDaShow]

16. Well right now

they are the "majority" although the Circuits are a mix and both Obama (an uphill battle with the blockages) and Biden were trying to fill as many vacancies across the Circuits to balance or re-tilt them out of conservative appointee hell.

Some 99% of the cases end at that Appellate level because the SCOTUS will normally only pick up a small number to hear (I think on average, about 80-some cases each term). 45, thanks to Turtle, packed it up but since he was only in one term, he couldn't achieve their fantasy of a complete takeover. Biden has had 140 confirmed at all the levels so far including 36 at the Appellate level.

It was dubbed a “Judicial Confirmation Factory”, still outpacing his predecessors through to this period in the Presidency.

Confirmations this year to date - https://www.uscourts.gov/judges-judgeships/judicial-vacancies/confirmation-listing

[ancianita]

17. True. Thanks for the historical context layout we live in. It's come up before but it merits review.

[SouthernDem4ever]

2. He certainly didn't care about the flood of women's health problems

from his last stupid rulings.

[BumRushDaShow]

5. It seems that just like how Scalia used to operate

with a special focus on specific "pet peeves" (Scalia was often fixated on his beliefs about the 4th Amendment), Alito has his own "pet peeves" and sortof pooh-poohs or is neutral about other stuff.

Roberts "allowed" the ACA to stand (sort of), whereas he trashed the VRA.

Just this past year, we saw how some like Kavanaugh (who often clings to Roberts to try to appear "moderate" ) or Gorsuch, offered surprises at how they would rule on certain things.

[3Hotdogs]

4. What in fuck is wrong with him

--- and the other 5, while we're at it?

[BumRushDaShow]

7. In this case, he temporarily lifted a ban of the ghost gun Rule put in place by a RW lower court

(the way the articles describe it are confusing)

The next step would be after the loons who had filed suit respond to the administration, then he'll make another decision (I suppose either to extend the hold on the Rule ban a bit longer for more info to be exchanged or keep the Rule ban hold in place indefinitely until the appeal is heard or go on allow the Rule ban to take effect through the appeal process).

Will have to stay tuned next week, same bat time, same bat channel!

[KS Toronado]

9. Unfortunately ghost guns are probably here to stay

But could we pass legislation that requires all "gun kits" to have a serial number engraved on them prior
to being sold to the public?

[BumRushDaShow]

10. I think that has been brought up as a suggestion

although one issue was that a loophole would remain where individual parts could just be sold separately (vs as a specific "kit" ), where none of the parts might have to have some kind of numbering because they could be used "for something else" (not necessarily only a "gun" ), and the instructions for assembly would just be available out there online somewhere (or even via snail mail).

[ancianita]

12. Yes, they are. Once on the nets means forever.

Legislation won't be enforceable. They won't even have to be 'sold' and therefore won't be subject to commerce clause backup. All that could be done is to catch the criminals who cause loss, harm or damage with them.

[madville]

18. They are easily 3D printable now

There are thousands of free design files available to download to 3D print popular firearm parts and pieces now. With many modern firearms being mostly plastic there’s really now way to stop the manufacture of them.

The metal barrel/cartridge chamber is the hardest part to make, might be what they have to start putting serial numbers on and regulating at some point instead of the receiver or frame.