GOA vs Garland 6th Circuit Chevron Deference vs Bump Stocks

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Bruenor
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GOA vs Garland 6th Circuit Chevron Deference vs Bump Stocks

Post by Bruenor »

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Today a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued its long-awaited opinion in Gun Owners of America v. Garland, a challenge to the Trump Administration's "bump stock" ban.
Judge Batchelder's opinion invalidates the ban on the grounds that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearm's interpretation was not eligible for Chevron deference because the law being interpreted was a criminal statute.
The question before us is whether a bump stock may be properly classified as a machine gun as defined by 26 U.S.C. § 5845(b). But this case rests as much on who determines the statute's meaning as it does on what the statute means.
from the conclusion:

Consistent with our precedent and mandated by separation-of-powers and fair-notice concerns, we hold that an administering agency's interpretation of a criminal statute is not entitled to Chevron deference. Consequently, the district court erred by finding that the ATF's Final Rule, which interpreted the meaning of a machine gun as defined in 26 U.S.C. § 5845(b), was entitled to Chevron deference. And because we find that "single function of the trigger" refers to the mechanical process of the trigger, we further hold that a bump stock cannot be classified as a machine gun because a bump stock does not enable a semiautomatic firearm to fire more than one shot each time the trigger is pulled. Accordingly, we find that Plaintiffs-Appellants are likely to prevail on the merits and that that their motion for an injunction should have been granted.
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Re: GOA vs Garland 6th Circuit Chevron Deference vs Bump Sto

Post by JustaShooter »

And given that the 6th Circuit includes the State of Ohio, this makes OFCC's lawsuits against Cincy and C-Bus all the more important.
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