The Trump Administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) is fighting to greatly limit the scope of the recent court ruling that the nationwide ban on concealed carry in post offices is unconstitutional. And that effort is drawing fire from some top gun-rights organizations.
In the case Firearms Policy Coalition Inc. v. Bondi, the court ruled on September 30: “The Court determines that both 18 U.S.C. § 930(a) and 39 C.F.R. § 232.1(1) are inconsistent with the principles that underpin this Nation’s regulatory tradition. Thus, they are unconstitutional as applied to carrying firearms inside an ordinary post office or on post office property.”
In response, the DOJ filed a motion to limit the scope of the injunction to only the named individual plaintiffs and to members of SAF and its partner organizations, but only to those who were members when the complaint was originally filed and who have been identified and verified. In other words, the government wants to keep the ban intact for the rest of America’s lawful gun owners.
Now, the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and Firearms Policy Coalition(FPC) are fighting back. On November 18, the two organizations filed scathing brief with the court that is extremely critical of the government’s efforts.
The brief states: “If the Government believes that merely asking whether an individual is covered by the injunction is somehow “enforcing” the Post Office Ban, there is no amount of information about Plaintiffs or their members that Plaintiffs could give the Government that would render compliance possible.”
In a news release announcing the brief, SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut said the government is flat-out wrong on the issue.
“The critical thing to remember here is that the government is fighting tooth and nail to continue enforcing an unconstitutional law against as many people as possible,” Kraut said. “The DOJ’s position that it would be ‘impossible’ for it to know who was protected by the injunction without a membership list is just plain silly. If officials want to know if someone found to be carrying at a post office is a SAF member, they can simply ask.”
Additionally, as Alan Gottlieb, SAF founder and executive vice president, explained, when his organization files a lawsuit, it does so on behalf of all of its members.
“The carry ban on U.S. Post Office property affects countless peaceable citizens nationwide who visit post offices every day to conduct their business,” Gottlieb added. “A Federal District Judge has declared the law unconstitutional, and yet the government’s knee-jerk reaction is to continue enforcing it against as many Americans as possible. Decades of settled case law says that it’s wrong.”
Speaking for his organization, FPC President Brandon Combs said the maneuver of stripping practical benefit after a pro-2A ruling is part of the Trump DOJ’s “sustained pattern of defending federal gun control at all costs.”
“President Trump’s DOJ is again using tyrannical legal tactics to gut a major constitutional victory and continue enforcing federal gun control laws—even those already declared unconstitutional by federal courts,” Combs said in a news release. “Instead of complying with the court’s order in this case, the Trump DOJ is spending time and money to keep people disarmed and defenseless. The Trump DOJ must stop wasting taxpayer money defending illegal gun control laws and start honoring the Bill of Rights—and their promise to protect the Second Amendment rights of the American people.”
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