A gun-rights organization has filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that federal enforcement agencies under the executive branch do not have the authority to make federal laws, only enforce them.
The case FCC v. Consumers’ Research is set to address the question of when and how Congress may delegate its authority to administrative agencies. While the case addresses rulemaking by the Federal Communications Commission, the ruling will be important to gun owners and a number of lawsuits filed against the DOJ and ATF for rulemaking during the Biden Administration.
The Firearms Policy Coalition filed the brief with the Supreme Court on February 18 arguing that the case is relevant to reigning in unfettered power against firearm ownership by federal agencies.
“Amici have a particular interest in this case for two reasons. Amici litigate cases in federal court around the country, and the question added by the Court concerning the availability of mootness exceptions is of great importance to Amici,” the brief explains, as “firearms cases frequently risk becoming moot, and the contours of the mootness doctrine are thus extremely important to Amici. Of even greater import to Amici is reigning in unconstitutional delegations of legislative power. Individual liberty, including the right to keep and bear arms, is routinely violated under the guise of broad delegations to administrative agencies.”
As the FPC pointed out in the brief, the Founders included the separation of powers within the Constitution on purpose and deliberately granted those powers to Congress, not the executive branch.
“The Framers of the Constitution could have easily chosen language that did not create a continuing obligation, such as ‘the legislative powers herein granted are given’ or even ‘the legislative powers herein granted are hereby vested,’” the brief explained. “But the Framers instead chose a future-tense verb that created a permanent obligation for the ‘legislative Powers herein granted’ to be vested in Congress. The Framers’ choice to keep all ‘legislative’ powers in the legislature was neither groundbreaking nor accidental. It reflected a long-settled principle in English and Colonial law that the executive could not exercise inherently ‘legislative’ powers.”
The brief also asks that the Supreme Court affirm the 5th Circuit Court ruling that specified only Congress can make such laws, FPC President Brandon Combs said in a press release announcing the brief.
“The Supreme Court should affirm the Fifth Circuit’s ruling in this case and make clear that only Congress can make federal law,” Combs said. “Congress may not continue to unconstitutionally delegate its law-making power to federal agencies like the ATF to abuse peaceable gun owners throughout the United States.”
FPC Action Foundation President Cody J. Wisniewski summed up the matter best.
“This case presents the Supreme Court with an opportunity to correct course and restore the protections that are inherent in the Constitution through our Nation’s separation of powers,” Wisniewski said.
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