Florida – February 2, 2024 – America’s Future, Inc., a national leader in the fight to preserve individual rights, promote American values and traditions, and protect the nation’s Constitutional Republic, announced that it filed an Amicus brief with the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) in Cargill v Merrick B. Garland, U.S. Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice, et al. The brief was filed on January 18, 2024, and is the second brief filed by America’s Future in support of Michael Cargill and striking down a 2019 DOJ firearm regulation as an unlawful overreach by an executive branch agency and usurpation of legislative powers. The first brief was filed with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which can be found here.

The case focuses on a DOJ interim final rule (IFR), effective March 26, 2019, purporting to merely amend or, as stated in the IFR, “clarify” the meaning and characteristics of “machineguns,” as defined by statute, even though the primary characteristic of a “machinegun” has never been overly complex and is generally considered a firearm that discharges multiple rounds of ammunition with only one trigger pull or in one shot. Known as the “Bump Stock Rule,” the DOJ IFR stretches the definition of a machinegun to encompass the most ordinary or popular firearms, which thereby swells the power and leverage that the justice department has over Americans.

“Our Second Amendment rights are at stake in this case, as well as our rights of due process and the fundamental American legal principle of separation of powers,” explained Mary O’Neill, Executive Director of America’s Future. “The current administration and its departments and agencies should not be permitted to manufacture new laws through agency rulemaking. It’s unconstitutional. The SCOTUS must rule in Mr. Cargill’s favor.”

The issue presented to the SCOTUS is: “Whether a bump stock device is a “machinegun” as defined in 26 U.S.C. 5845(b) because it is designed and intended for use in converting a rifle into a machinegun, i.e., into a weapon that fires “automatically more than one shot * * * by a single function of the trigger.”

To read more details about this filing, along with other briefs filed by America’s Future, please visit our Law & Policy page.