WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear an appeal from the Biden administration over the regulation of hard-to-trace ghost guns that had been struck down by lower courts.
The justices had previously intervened in a 5-4 vote to keep the ordinance in place during the legal battle. Ghost weapons, which do not have serial numbers, are turning up at crime scenes with increasing regularity.
The regulation, which went into effect in 2022, changed the definition of a firearm under federal law to include unfinished parts, such as the frame of a handgun or the receiver of a long firearm, to make them easier to track. These parts must be licensed and contain serial numbers. Manufacturers must also conduct background checks before selling them, as with other commercially manufactured firearms.
The requirement applies regardless of how the firearm is made, meaning it also includes ghost guns made from individual parts or kits or by 3D printers. The rule does not prohibit people from purchasing equipment or any type of firearm.
The Justice Department had told the court that local law enforcement agencies seized more than 19,000 ghost guns from crime scenes in 2021, a more than tenfold increase in just five years.
U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Fort Worth, Texas, struck down the rule last year, concluding that it exceeded the authority of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. O’Connor wrote that the definition of a firearm in federal law does not include all parts of a firearm. Congress could change the law, he wrote.
A panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, made up of three appointees of then-President Donald Trump, largely upheld O’Connor’s ruling.
The Supreme Court allowed the ordinance to remain in effect while the lawsuit continued. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett, along with the court’s three liberal members, formed the majority. Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas are said to have suspended the rule during the appeal process.
Barrett, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh were appointed by Trump.
There will be no quarrels before the fall.
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