Now, the U.S. Supreme Court agrees with that accusation.
In a 6-3 landmark ruling on Friday, the high court threw out the four-decade-old Chevron v. National Resources Defense Council decision transferring regulatory authority to federal agencies. This marked a significant victory for gun rights supporters against agencies such as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF).
Gun Owners of America (GOA) immediately posted the decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v Raimondo on social media.
The advocacy group noted that “judges used this now-overruled Chevron Deference to defer to ATF gun control & rule against the Second Amendment (even when the agency was blatantly wrong).”
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority. “Chevron is overruled. Courts must exercise their independent judgment in deciding whether an agency has acted within its statutory authority.”
Friday’s pivotal decision followed by two weeks the Supreme Court’s overturning of the ATF’s blanket ban on bump stocks.
Forty years ago, the ruling allowed federal agencies to interpret laws passed by Congress and act accordingly. As noted by many constitutional scholars, this broad stroke enabled unelected officials to act as lawmakers and force policies onto the American public that were never enacted by the legislative branch or signed into law by the President.
The controversial ATF and several other powerful federal groups are on notice that their power to rewrite laws is now strictly limited — as the Constitution dictated. Gun rights supporters and other civil libertarians are pleased that there will be much more oversight for rogue agencies to limit their power and scope.
For many, the Chevron reversal is a clear victory for checks and balances and a limit on executive branch power. It should put the responsibility back on Congress to declare its intent on issues such as gun rights.
What does this mean for gun rights advocates?
The ATF can no longer be guided by political leaders hostile to the Second Amendment. It must abide by the law and leave the writing of new regulations to elected officials.
As the federal system is intended to work, Congress writes laws, the courts interpret them and the Executive Branch enforces them. The long-term issue has been with the agencies under the President acting in a political manner and moving far beyond what Congress authorized them to do.
In the case of the ATF, the bump stock ban is a prime example. No new law was passed, but officials decided under pressure from Washington that their attachment to weapons vitally changed the nature of the firearm.
Now, it was magically a machine gun.
The ATF is also under fire for its draconian efforts to force gun dealers out of business and gun shows to close their doors. Congress did not mandate these actions, but bureaucrats used their interpretation of the law and the Chevron doctrine to justify suppressing gun rights.
Critics argue that Chevron’s demise means that gridlock will become more common as federal agencies are unable to rapidly address an emerging crisis.
However, far too often, average Americans find themselves under the grip of regulatory powers that do not answer to the voters and have the vast resources of the federal government behind them. Law-abiding gun owners are subject to the whims of faceless bureaucrats who enact de facto laws with the stroke of a pen.
Friday’s Supreme Court decision is a significant victory for gun rights and a step in the right direction to protect Second Amendment freedoms from pencil pushers.
If Congress decides to pass a gun control law and the Supreme Court rules it constitutional, that’s one thing. However, arbitrary regulations imposed by agencies are entirely different.
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