A good explanation of what those two Supremes rulings mean

for gun owners.  Very short version, ATF is among a bunch of federal agencies that just had their "We wrote a new rule for you to obey" powers cut off.

And, of course, there’s ATF’s practice of seeking to fine FFL’s through its own internal administrative proceedings for alleged violations of ATF rules would now seem to be barred under Jarkesy. ATF will be required to file a civil lawsuit or a criminal indictment…which I suspect it will be far less likely to do.  

What of ATF’s current jihad against FFLs, in which it seeks to terminate federal licenses based on even the slightest technical mistakes? That could be a tougher call, as the issuance of licenses may fall under the “public rights” aspect of the law that doesn’t implicate the Seventh Amendment. We’ll have to see how the post-Jarkesy case law shakes out.

In a post-Jarkesy communication with Prof. Hamburger, he told me that he expects the feds will try to take a very narrow view of the Court’s opinions, and more fights will undoubtedly be needed. Fortunately, the NCLA has already set up a “Relentless Working Group” which is tasked with monitoring and identifying agencies that are resisting the Supreme Court’s holdings, and they’ll bring test cases where appropriate. The administrative state is down, but it’s by no means out.