The Pam Bondi Department of Justice continues to frustrate the actions of pro-gun rights groups that are seeking intervention from the Supreme Court.
On October 8, D. John Sauer, Solicitor General Counsel of Record, and Matthew R. Galeotti, Acting Assistant Attorney General, representing the Department of Justice, submitted a brief opposing a request for the Supreme Court to hear a case challenging the National Firearms Act.
The case of Rush v. United States, which is being appealed from the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, addresses whether the National Firearms Act’s registration and taxation requirement for short-barreled rifles facially violates the Second Amendment.
The Justice Department’s official position is that the petition for a writ of certiorari should be denied, or in layman’s terms, the Supreme Court should pass on this case.
Why?
First, they argue that the NFA is constitutional “because short-barreled rifles combine high destructive power with easy concealability, they are especially susceptible to criminal misuse.”
They also claim no other court has held the NFA unconstitutional, writing, “Petitioner cites no case in which a court of appeals has held the NFA unconstitutional.”
They also trivialize the case, calling it an attempt, “…to resolve a variety of other analytical issues, such as the meaning of the word 8 ‘Arms in the Second Amendment.”
The DOJ seems to want any case except that addressing the NFA, stating:
But this case would be a poor vehicle for addressing those issues…. Other types of cases — for instance, cases involving state laws banning AR-15 rifles,… would provide better vehicles for clarifying the appropriate framework for discerning what types of arms the Second Amendment protects.
Ever since President Trump issued an executive order directing the DOJ to protect the Second Amendment in February, we have tracked their Second Amendment-related actions here.
