Pro-Gun Organizations File Amicus Brief With Supreme Court in Chevron Case

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Jul 26, 2023

On July 24, 2023, Gun Owners of America (GOA) and the Gun Owners Foundation (GOF) spearheaded a coalition of fourteen non-profit organizations in submitting an amicus brief with the Supreme Court with the aim of restricting the excessive power of administrative agencies, which includes the ATF.

In the fall of 2023, the Court will reconsider a 1984 decision that set up Chevron deference when it takes on the case of Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo. This precedent mandates federal judges to defer to bureaucrats in administrative agencies when crafting rules and regulations under unclear  Congressional statutes. 

In the legal  brief that GOA and GOF submitted, the plaintiffs contend that Chevron is unconstitutional due to how it grants legislative and judicial power to executive branch agencies. As a result, these powers are usually used to strip Americans of their liberties when the executive branch is in possession of them. 

In launching legal challenges against the ATF’s regulation banning bump stocks as machineguns, GOA and GOF have fought against courts aiming to turn to Chevron deference. 

Erich Pratt, GOA’s Senior Vice President, made the following statement about the Chevron Deference:

Joe Biden – and his predecessors – used the wide authority given to them by Chevron Deference to go after law-abiding gun owners on several different occasions. Americans have had enough of one man with a pen going after our constitutionally guaranteed rights, and we urge the Court to reverse Chevron.

Sam Paredes, who represents the Board for GOF, chimed in on the Chevron precedent:

The Court’s Chevron precedent has been an utter disaster for Second Amendment rights, and we are excited to highlight this to the Court via this brief. We hope they will realize the errors of the past and return the major decision-making authority squarely where it belongs: with the people’s elected representatives. 

The concentration of power within executive agencies is one of the most dangerous political developments that has taken place in American politics over the last century. Such developments have to be fiercely resisted if we want to preserve any semblance of freedom in the US. Concentrated power is always a threat to freedom.

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