Thread by @HaroldWren11

Time for a thread! Over this weekend, a lot of very important legal happenings have occurred, particularly in regards to the Second Amendment. #2A

During the last Supreme Court Session, the US Supreme Court wrote a landmark decision in the NYSPRA v Bruen (NY) case, and its well known. But another equally important but lesser noticed landmark case was also decided last term, and it is having earth shaking effects.

Last term, a case came before the US Supreme Court, where West Virginia sued the EPA for egregious changes to the clean air act that essentially rewrote the law with much tougher restrictions. This was done at the Biden admin's direction to directly target the WV Coal industry.

In West Virginia v EPA, the crux of the matter was Exec Branch Agencies abusing Chevron Deference legal standard to exceed their regulatory authority to essentially rewrite laws for political reasons, by changing their regulatory definitions & rules.

In deciding WV v EPA, SCOTUS ruled that EPA exceeded its authority & that chevron deference DOES NOT permit an agency to make rule changes that effectly modifies existing laws or would create new law.

law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/t…

The Supreme Court ruled that in drastically changing the clean air act standards to punish coal & oil industries, the EPA was rewriting the law, which only congress can do. They ruled the changes unconstitutional & further defined that Chevron can ONLY be used when....

...the rule changes or regulations changes had minimal econonic OR political impact. The EPA rule changes were political in nature & would have dire economic consequences for West Virginia and ruled in WV favor.

This precedent applies to all Executive Branch Federal Agencies, in particular all regulatory agencies, like the EPA and ATF. At the start of the Biden adminstration, they aggressively began to attack gun rights through regulation and rules changes.

Among the rule changes, was at the direction of the Biden White house, the ATF carried over the Trump admin decision to classify bump stocks as Machine Guns. This effectively made their sale, purchase and possession illegal, unless registered as items in the National Firearms Act

Overnight, this turned a couple million law abiding gun owners into Felons overnight, based on a political decision. Another rule change the ATF adopted at the Biden White House's order was to reclassify all AR15 style guns w short barrels & pistol braces..

..as no longer being recognized as 'pistols' as they had for over a decade, & reclassify them as short barrel rifles governed by the National Firearms Act, making approximately 15 million previously law abiding gun owners into felons with the stroke of pen.

This decision was also made based on the political consderations; it was ordered by the White House as part of the Biden Administrations Gun Control push.

The Biden Adminstration also pushed the ATF to redefine what a firearm Frame, or receiver was. The ATF changed the rules on three separate occasions to finally arrive at the conclusion that a frame/receiver that was 80% machined & incomplete, was in fact a fully made firearm.

This politically motivated rule change was Biden's widely publicized effort to quote "crack down on ghost guns".
All three rule changes were made by the ATF relying on Chevron Deference as their legal framework & justification; two of the three violate West Virginia v EPA.

You see, in 1968, the US Congress passed one of the most sweeping gun control bills ever, into law: The Gun Control Act of 1968. This law was signed into law by Lyndon B Johnson. Since then, it has been the law of the land. Within this law, the LEGAL definition of....

...machine guns, what constitutes a firearm frame or receiver, and what constitutes a pistol. The language used in the law is highly technical & specific. In order to affect the three rule changes directed by the Biden Adminstration the ATF had to rewrite these legal definitions.

The ATF *exceeded its legal authority* to redefine these items as explicitly defined by the 1968 Gun Control Act. The definitions & text of the law can be viewed here:
govinfo.gov/content/pkg/ST…

Why is all this legalese important? where am i going with this? Answer: Yesterday's huge ruling by the Fifth Circuit court utterly destroying the ATF's rule change on bump stocks. The Fifth Circuit court ruled that under WV v EPA the ATF doesn't have the authority to make ...

..that change. Their rule would result in prosecution of people possessing bump stocks & felony convictions, fines & prison times. The ATF had created a new LAW, exceeding its authority. The changes would need to be made by Congress, by amending the Gun Control Act of 1968.

Jard at @Guns_Gadgets produced a short explanation video of the 62-page decision against the ATF.

While i expect the ATF to appeal this ruling, they arent going to get far. This would require the ATF appealing the ruling to the US Supreme Court; there's no gaurantee the court would choose to hear the case.

If the Supreme Court declined to take the ATFs appeal the Fifth Circuit's decision would stand as law. It's highly unlikely the Court would take the case, as its settled law by two different landmark cases from last term- Bruen decision, & WV v EPA decisions.

For the ATF to succeed in its appeal, it would need the SCOTUS to take on this case, and overturn both landmark rulings from last term. I dont have to tell you how small the odds of that are. But why is THIS case important?

This ruling is far larger than this one case-- This case will now be used as precedent in ongoing lawsuits against the AFT in the frame and receiver ruling case, you can find a great primer on that case here:

So far in this case, the Federal Judge overseeing this case has told ATF on three separate occasions that 'the plaintiffs are likely to succeed on merits in this case" & has allowed additional plaintiffs twice in the case, & granted a temporary injunction against ATF in the case

There is also ongoing lawsuits against the ATF in the pistol brace rule, which are also likely to succeed on the merits. This case could play out a couple ways, either federal court rules against ATF and it makes its way up to the high court, or the ATF loses & high court...

...declines to take the case, as Bruen, and EPA landmark rulings already are settled law applying in this case as well.

The Biden Adminstration has been lawless from the first day, ignoring federal law & the bill or rights, acting more as a dictatorship than a constitutionally elected government bound by law.

The Biden Administration has lost court battles over:
-vax mandate
-remain in mexico
-free speech

And ongoing cases like the ones i outlined here in addition to Missouri v Biden currently going on over the abusive censorship covered by @tracybeanz will also further add to losses

This case as decided by the Fifth Circuit Court will have a massive ripple effect across the executive branch.

This case DIRECTLY addresses Biden Admin abuse of Chevron in direct defiance of West Virginia v EPA.

Big things are coming. #lawfare is our biggest weapon against Tyranny.

hey @UnrollHelper please unroll this thread.