Supreme Court to take up Biden crackdown on ‘ghost guns’

The Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether the Biden administration acted legally when it implemented a crackdown on the sale of do-it-yourself “ghost gun” kits.

The justices announced Monday that they will take up a regulation Attorney General Merrick Garland issued in 2022 that sought to consider such kits as firearms so they can’t be used to make untraceable weapons sold without background checks and frequently used in crimes.

The New Orleans-based 5th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s injunction against the rule, concluding that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms appeared to have exceeded its statutory authority when trying to rein in the circulation of ghost guns.

Last August, the Supreme Court voted, 5-4, to allow the Biden administration to implement the regulation while legal challenges to it continued. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the court’s three liberals in granting the federal government’s request to proceed with the rule.

The high court’s latest action was expected because only four justices are needed to grant review in a case, and the four dissenters on last year’s emergency stay application would have the power to do that. The court does not typically disclose which justices voted to hear a case.

The ghost gun case is expected to be set for argument in the fall, with a decision likely after the presidential election in November.