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Bloodthirsty rightist Federal Judge who loves seeing
American children die suffers another defeat.

Wonder if he's accepting 'gifts' from the gun lobby too?

https://www.scotusblog.com/2023/10/justices-again-side- with-biden-on-ghost-guns/

Justices again side with Biden on ghost guns
By Amy Howe
on Oct 16, 2023 at 6:00 pm

Less than three months after allowing the Biden
administration to temporarily reinstate a rule by the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives
regulating “ghost guns,” the Supreme Court blocked a ruling
by a federal judge in Texas that would have prevented the
government from enforcing the rule against two
manufacturers of gun parts. Appealing to the justices to
act, U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar had urged
the court not to “tolerate such circumvention of its
orders.”

Ghost guns are firearms without serial numbers that
virtually anyone can assemble from parts, often purchased
in a kit. In 2022, the ATF issued a rule to make clear that
federal laws governing the sale of firearms – requiring,
for example, background checks for purchases and imposing
recordkeeping obligations – apply to ghost guns.

On June 30, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor barred ATF
from enforcing the rule anywhere in the United States. The
U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit narrowed the
scope of O’Connor’s order but declined to put it on hold
while the government appealed. That prompted Prelogar to
come to the Supreme Court in July, telling the justices
that O’Connor’s order was “irreparably harming the public
and the government by reopening the floodgates to the tide
of untraceable ghost guns flowing into our Nation’s
communities.”

By a vote of 5-4, the Supreme Court on Aug. 8 granted the
government’s request to be able to enforce the rule while
litigation continued in the lower courts. Justices Clarence
Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh
indicated that they would have allowed the ban on
enforcement of the rule to continue.

Shortly after the Supreme Court’s Aug. 8 order, two of the
original challengers – Blackhawk Manufacturing and Defense
Distributed – returned to the district court, seeking an
injunction that would bar the government from enforcing the
rule against them while the appeal continued. O’Connor
granted that request on Sept. 14, and the 5th Circuit
upheld O’Connor’s order on Oct. 2.

The Biden administration returned to the Supreme Court
three days later, asking the justices to intervene again.
The Supreme Court’s Aug. 8 order, Prelogar wrote, “reflects
an authoritative determination that the government should
be allowed to implement the Rule during appellate
proceedings.” If the Supreme Court does not block
O’Connor’s order, Prelogar warned, “untraceable ghost guns
will remain widely available to anyone with a computer and
a credit card – no background check required.” And more
broadly, she added, the court should step in because the
lower courts “have effectively countermanded this Court’s
authoritative determination” that the Biden administration
should be able to enforce the rule nationwide while its
appeal continues.

Defense Distributed countered that O’Connor’s Sept. 14
order provided a different remedy than his June 30 order:
While the earlier order vacated the rule, so that it
effectively did not exist anywhere in the country,
O’Connor’s Sept. 14 order simply barred the government from
enforcing the rule against Blackhawk and Defense
Distributed.

In light of this difference, Blackhawk emphasized, the
company had no choice but to go back to the district court
to seek relief “to preserve its ability to stay in
business” until the litigation is concluded.

On Oct. 6, Justice Samuel Alito, who handles emergency
appeals from the 5th Circuit, issued a temporary stay of
O’Connor’s ruling, until 5 p.m. on Oct. 16, to give the
Supreme Court time to consider the Biden administration’s
request. In a brief, unsigned order issued shortly before
4:30 p.m. on Monday, the justices vacated O’Connor’s order,
clearing the way for the Biden administration to enforce
the rule against Blackhawk and Defense Distributed for now.
There were no public dissents from the court’s order.

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