Reese v. ATF is on our radar because it’s one of the cases where the Justice Department is aggressively defending gun control, and one that impacts the rights of young adults under 21.
In January 2025, the Fifth Circuit held that the federal age-based handgun ban is unconstitutional and remanded the case back to the district court. The district court issued a final judgment on January 27, 2026, but with an extremely narrow scope of relief limited to both the geographic boundaries of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and only those members of the plaintiff organizations who were members as of the date of entry of its judgment.
In other words, the district court decided that the right to keep and bear arms for young adults under 21 applies only to young adults who reside in the area covered by the Fifth Circuit who are also members of the gun rights groups in this case, an unprecedented decision when it comes to constitutional rights that should be universally protected.
On June 22, the plaintiffs, including Firearms Policy Coalition, Second Amendment Foundation, and Louisiana Shooting Association, appealed again to the Fifth Circuit requesting oral arguments over the restrictive decision issued by the district court that, by all measures, violates the spirit of the Fifth Circuit’s ruling.
“Even though the Fifth Circuit already held that these bans are unconstitutional, the government is trying to limit the decision’s reach so it can keep disarming peaceable adults across the country. This is how the United States government celebrates 250 years of American independence – by acting like the tyrants we defeated,” said FPC President Brandon Combs.
Although the Justice Department has not yet submitted its brief in this new appeal to the Fifth Circuit, it filed a notice of cross-appeal on March 30, 2026, challenging aspects of the district court’s narrow judgment. As we previously reported, the DOJ had also sought to limit the scope of the victory and demanded the membership lists of the plaintiff gun rights groups, earning it a thumbs-down on our Pam Bondi action tracker.
Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division, Brett Shumate, is the signatory on most of the Justice Department’s anti-gun legal actions in this administration. Since Bondi stepped down as attorney general in April, there has been a remarkable shift in the Justice Department’s approach to gun control, but there are still hold-out cases, like this one, where it is defending anti-constitutional laws.
