The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) lacked the authority to declare non-mechanical bump stocks “machineguns,” the full Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held on Friday.
The decision, Cargill v. Garland, is the latest example of the courts foiling attempts by the federal bureaucracy to exercise the legislative power the Constitution vests with Congress, but until the Supreme Court’s separation of powers jurisprudence catches up with the runaway administrative state, the Cargill victory holds limited import.
On Oct. 1, 2017, a gunman murdered more than 50 innocent people in Las Vegas, injuring another 500. The murderer used
