NEW: Justice Sam Alito tried out several analogies in opposing the ATF’s “ghost gun” rule, but he was more or less left to do so alone on Tuesday. After 75 minutes of arguments, the rule appears to be safe. Here’s my Law Dork report from SCOTUS: www.lawdork.com/p/atf-ghost-...
Solicitor General Prelogar summed it up: "They were sold to be crime guns." Also: Law Dork in the news
As Tony Soprano would have said: “that fucking guy”
I feel like I could have knocked that argument down in court.
Sam Alito AKA start with the conclusion you want and work backwards from there
Did he do the thing where he pretends the argument he's making is established fact?
"Alito who held up a blank legal pad and pen and dismissively asked Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, 'Is this a grocery list?'" These are supposed to be smart people. His question is obvious logical nonsense. So many issues in law are more subtle and complex. Alito has clearly checked-out.
Alito is a ghost gun.
The vote to allow enforcement during appeals was made was 5-4 last year, with Roberts & Barrett joining the 3 liberals. Would it be surprising to see Thomas, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh vote to uphold the regulation after voting to not allow it to continue?
Do not sleep on the Loper Bright/Chevron kicker, c/o Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, today: www.lawdork.com/p/atf-ghost-...
![As she does often, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was looking at the case more broadly, saying outright that she was “concerned” about the Justice Department’s framing of the case as being about whether the kits are firearms under the statute.
Instead centering her questions around whether the Supreme Court is “taking over what Congress may have intended for the agency to do in this situation,” Jackson appeared to see that the rule is safe. She was, rather, looking at last term’s decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo ending Chevron agency deference — and looking ahead to the future.
“[A]re we to conclude that an agency exceeds its statutory authority whenever it fails to choose what we think is the best meaning of a statutory term?” she asked.
It was a question posed to Prelogar, but it was just as clearly a question to her colleagues about how law will work in a post-Chevron era.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:36eqtmzysqf7wsslczw4uxcd/bafkreiesl3c5g5w2pflc6xsg42lowu6k45uxolzf6trxsavcblzawawbhe@jpeg)