AMARILLO, Texas — A United States District Court issued a decision that forever precludes the ATF from enforcing its “Engaged in the business” rule, a Biden-era concoction by a rogue bureaucratic agency that imperiled many law-abiding gun owners.
On Friday, June 12, Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk issued the four-page final judgment in State of Texas et al. v. ATF out of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, writing, “Defendants may not apply the Final Rule to anyone, including individuals and organizations who are not parties to this case.”
“The ATF’s rule was not a modest clarification. It was a regulatory power grab. It was an attempt to treat ordinary Americans as federal licensees, subject them to burdens never imposed by Congress, and chill lawful firearm ownership and transfers through fear of prosecution or enforcement. This ruling exposes that overreach for what it was,” said John Harris, Executive Director of the Tennessee Firearms Association, which was one of many gun rights groups represented in the suit.
The ATF’s “Definition of ‘Engaged in the Business’ as a Dealer in Firearms” final rule was issued on April 19, 2024, and was almost immediately challenged by a consortium of states that joined numerous gun rights groups in filing a May 2024 lawsuit.
The controversial Biden-era “rule” criminalized what had previously been lawful activities, and, as the original complaint put it, subjected gun owners to “presumptions of criminal guilt for all manner of activities relating to the innocuous, statutorily authorized, and constitutionally protected private sale of firearms.” All of this was done outside the normal law-making function of Congress.
The now-vacated rule represented the overall philosophy and enforcement posture of the ATF when it raided the home of Bryan Malinowski on March 19, 2024, in order to serve a warrant for “unlicensed dealing,” a paperwork crime. The raid resulted in the death of Mr. Malinowski. The rule went into effect just weeks later.
Regarding his murder, the Second Amendment Foundation observed, “In a perfect world, Bryan Malinowski would be alive today and substantially richer after suing the ATF for violating his Second, Fourth, and Fifth Amendment rights. Unfortunately, the ATF has yet to be held accountable for shooting and killing Malinowski in his home just 16 months ago.”
Judge Kacsmaryk’s decision also denied the intervenor states’ motion to intervene as moot. He had previously denied a similar attempt by a coalition of 16 blue states, including New Jersey, which argued that President-elect Trump “promises to overturn the current Administration’s firearms policies swiftly.”
The district court’s decision is critical because future administrations that are not 2A-friendly could simply reintroduce the rule without a legally binding injunction. Even under the supposedly 2A-friendly Bondi DOJ, the rule remained, with the Trump administration’s top leadership slow to take action.
It wasn’t until Bondi stepped down and ATF director Robert Cekada was appointed in April of 2026 that the ATF introduced its historical reform package, in which it moved to rescind both the Biden-era stabilizing brace rule and the “engaged in the business” rule. The district court’s ruling further underpins this victory, and the Trump DOJ is not expected to appeal.
