By Allan Lengel
In a narrow 5-4 vote, with two conservative justices voting with the majority, the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday reinstated the Biden administration’s regulations on “ghost guns,” the Washington Post reports. The regulations will remain in place while legal battles continue, the court said.
The firearms are assembled from kits and don’t have the usual serial numbers or require background checks.
The ruling comes shortly after Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. agreed to temporarily pause a lower court’s order barring the government from regulating ghost guns. The lower court in June had issued a decision vacating an ATF regulation on the guns, saying it had exceeded its authority.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and fellow conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson in approving the government’s plea, the Post reports.
