On the first day of the Supreme Court’s new term, the Court announced this morning that it had denied two cases challenging the ATF’s ban on bump stocks under the Trump administration. The cases challenged the ATF’s authority to reclassify previously-approved bump stocks as machine guns.
The cases the justices declined to hear were an appeal from a Utah gun rights advocate and another brought by the gun rights group Gun Owners of America and others. As is typical, the justices made no comments in declining to hear the cases, and they were among many the court rejected Monday, the first day of the court’s new term. …
The Trump administration’s move was an about-face for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. In 2010, under the Obama administration, the agency found that bump stocks should not be classified as a “machinegun” and should not be banned under federal law. Under the Trump administration, officials revisited that determination and found it incorrect.
The decision by the Court not only sidesteps another gun control case but also a challenge to federal agencies’ regulatory power through Chevron deference, allowing them broad abilities to interpret laws as written by Congress.