A coalition of 27 state Attorneys General has filed an amicus brief with the United States Supreme Court urging Justices to limit the Biden Administration’s ban on “ghost guns” through a “Frame or Receiver” rule proposed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). The brief suggests, at best, that the ATF has overstepped its authority, and at worst that the agency is intentionally cooperating with the Biden Administration to evade the law by circumventing the legislative process. While the subject of the brief focuses on the proposed 2022 rule, broadening the definition of a “firearm” to include parts and parts kits that can be assembled into a functional firearm as well as partially complete, disassembled, or nonfunctional frames or receivers, the filing cites multiple examples outlining the overall unrestrained behavior of the ATF in recent years, including the failed overreach on bump stocks and stabilizing braces. 

In July 2023, Judge Reed O’Connor of the Texas-based U.S. District Court ruled that the ATF had overstepped Congress with the proposed “Frame or Receiver” rule by banning partially made guns, effectively classifying certain parts themselves as firearms. Following the ruling, the Biden administration requested the Supreme Court intervene after the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals declined to put O’Connor’s ruling on hold. In a 5-4 vote last August, the justices granted the Biden Administration’s request to temporarily allow the rule to stand while the challenge proceeded in the lower courts, with Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh dissenting to the decision.