Constitutional Rights Cannot be Redefined by Agency Decree

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Quote of the Day

The injunction is significant—not only for its immediate protection of NRA members but also for the precedent it sets in reining in agency overreach. Beyond striking down a single rule, the ruling reasserts a fundamental principle: that the power to make or change laws lies with Congress, not unelected bureaucrats.

For the firearm community, Butler v. Bondi is more than a courtroom win. It is a reaffirmation that the boundaries of federal power must be respected, and that constitutional rights cannot be redefined by agency decree.

Susanne Edward
October 13, 2025
Judges Rule Against Another Biden-Era Policy | An Official Journal Of The NRA

This is good, but it reminds me of something else I want the gun rights organizations to work on… How does anyone believe the 2nd Amendment allows restrictions on interstate sales of firearms? Why can’t someone in California legally buy a gun in Oregon or Nevada without it being shipped to a California FFL?

It is not that I think the interstate sales restrictions should be a higher priority than semi-auto rifle bans, standard capacity magazine bans, and the “sensitive places” B.S. But it should be on the radar.

Also, in an era of President Trump pushing the envelope with executive orders, this precedent will be interesting in its application to recent events.

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9 thoughts on “Constitutional Rights Cannot be Redefined by Agency Decree”

  1. The interstate sales prohibition appears to be statute rather than regulation.

    18 U.S.C. § 922(b)(3)

    • Certainly, but neither Article 1 Section 8 nor the 2nd Amendment permit that to exist.

      • Yeah but the origin of the infringement is politicians not bureaucrats pointing to a different strategy to get rid of it.

        • For rules, you can beat up on bureaucrats to fix them.
          For laws, you can beat up on lawmakers.

          But for both, courts can rule them unconstitutional. That’s what I was thinking about.

  2. Just wargaming here . . . California says an Wyomingite with an Wyoming permit to carry concealed can’t carry in California, because the Wyoming permit concerns concealed carry only in Wyoming.

    A Californian visits Wyoming, and purchases a gun from a family member in Wyoming. California says ‘waitaminute, can’t do that’ and Wyoming says, ‘he and the gun are present in the State of Wyoming, obeying Wyoming’s laws, you can’t touch him unless he brings that gun back to California.’

    And there was a case involving a person with residences in both Texas and DC trying to buy a gun in Texas and bring it to DC, iirc.

  3. In an truly educated country. This would be a no-brainer.
    And it’s been going on for how long?
    We could actually fix this all in a hurry by just making all state and federal government employees get their pay through the ATF-NFA system.
    Oh, the whailing and gnashing of teeth we would hear.
    I bet we would be able to get guns/suppressors through amazon, next day. And carry anything, anywhere we like. No questioned asked.

  4. Bureaucrats and bureaucratic agencies issue “rulings” and then enforce them as if they were law for a simple reason. Because they can. They suffer NO consequences for doing so and more often than not the “legal” (sic) system not only does NOT smack then down for violating the Constitution and our Rights but outright aids and abets their criminality. And the occasional win that conservatives see in courts is invariably restricted, constricted and limited. As in this one where it’s essentially restricted to NRA members. There was another such “win” recently…that applied ONLY to specific members of a named group. The Fed Gov does EVERYTHING in its power to keep any favorable ruling as limited as possible. The whole system is corrupt and in need of complete dismantling.

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