If the US Supreme Court upholds a federal appeals court ruling that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives lacks the authority to regulate “nonmechanical” bump stocks, that decision could have broad consequences for other federal agencies charged with regulatory enforcement.
The US Justice Department is asking the justices to overturn the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit’s January decision that ATF doesn’t have that specific regulatory authority because it’s not clearly spelled out by statute.
A majority of the en banc panel, agreeing to assume the statute’s ambiguity, invoked the rule of lenity, rather than deferring to ATF’s otherwise reasonable interpretation of it.
Carrying that reasoning forward could invite similar challenges whenever arguably ambiguous criminal statutes are enforced.
Dru Stevenson, a professor at South Texas College of Law, said he was surprised that the agency didn’t delve more deeply into the issue in its cert. petition filed with the high court on April 6.
“I think they could have leaned more heavily on the fact that the Fifth Circuit is applying the rule of lenity in an unprecedented way,” he said.
The rule of lenity requires courts to resolve ambiguity in criminal statutes in favor of defendants. But it only applies where the ambiguity is “grievous,” or so significant that after exhausting traditional interpretative tools...
NEW YORK, April 27, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Levi & Korsinsky, LLP alerts investors in ImmunityBio, Inc. (NASDAQ: IBRX) of a pending securities class action naming a senior executive as an ind...