The future of the piston brace is now in question after a three-judge pane on the 5th Circuit sent a case back to the lower courts for reconsideration.
This was a mixed panel of Obama, Trump, and Reagan-appointed judges.
While they sent the case back to the lower courts, their general consensus was that the rule against pistol braces is “unlawful.”
Impactful Ruling
In Mock v. Garland, the court focused on the claim by the plaintiff that the new rule for pistol braces violates the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).
The court ruled that the district court treated the rule as “interpretive” rather than “legislative” in nature.
The court went on to note that the rule is, in fact, legislative, so the case was sent back for reconsideration on those grounds.
The ruling stated, “We move on to plaintiffs’ claim that the Final Rule violates the APA’s procedural and substantive requirements. On that front, plaintiffs establish a substantial likelihood of success on the merits.
“The ATF incorrectly maintains that the Final Rule is merely interpretive, not legislative, and thus not subject to the logical-outgrowth test.
“The Final Rule affects individual rights, speaks with the force of law, and significantly implicates private interests. Thus, it is legislative in character,” reported Breitbart.
The court also noted that “the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) and the Final Rule bear little resemblance to one another.”
It continued, "It is nigh impossible for a regular citizen to determine what constitutes a braced pistol, and outside of the sixty contemporaneous adjudications that the ATF released, whether a specified braced pistol requires NFA registration.”
If the lower court changes its ruling, Democrats are going to lose their minds, but that may all be for naught anyway.
Based on the wording of this ruling, if the case does get kicked back to the Circuit Court, it seems likely they will rule in favor of the plaintiff.
Conservatives know that the moment any give is shown regarding the Second Amendment, Democrats are going to pounce and go full throttle to try to dismantle it, so they will be watching this case very closely.
