With no action on the topic more than two months into the Trump Administration, Gun Owners of America (GOA) has announced it has filed a lawsuit against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) over a gag order placed on its attorneys in the matter of secret surveillance documents gained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
GOA filed the action on March 12, a year and a half after a protective order was placed on GOA lawyers to not release the information, which the gun-rights group says is still pertinent today.
According to a report at ammoland.com, the order was issued after GOA filed a 2021 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking “records about a secret government surveillance program which unlawfully and unconstitutionally monitors and records the firearm purchases of American citizens who are perfectly eligible to purchase and possess firearms.” The ATF eventually gave the documents to GOA, then tried to force the group to return all the documents and destroy any copies made of them.
When GOA refused, ATF asked the court for a protective order to keep the organization from releasing the documents. Since that order has been in effect, GOA has not released the documents, but now is asking the court to allow it to release the papers.
“Relying on the asserted ‘implied power’ of courts ‘to issue a temporary protective order for inadvertently produced FOIA materials,’ this Court granted Defendant’s requests, issuing first an order to ‘sequester’ and subsequently a protective order that ‘plaintiffs and their counsel’ ‘shall sequester’ and ‘shall not disseminate, disclose, or use for any purpose those records or the content of those records,’” the brief states. “Thus, for the past 17 months, Plaintiffs—members of the press—have been prohibited from printing the news, while Plaintiffs’ lawyers have been prohibited from communicating with their clients, advocating for their clients’ interests, or even accessing portions of their own attorney work product.”
As GOA also pointed out in their brief, if the documents were classified, they still would not be entitled to a “sweeping protective order.” Only portions of the papers affecting national security would be eligible for protection via a protective order.
Ultimately, it’s a shame that GOA must continue fighting in court a questionable decision resulting from President Joe Biden’s weaponized ATF now that the new administration is in place. With the change of administration, ATF should back off of all such actions but seems to be reluctant to do so.
In fact, earlier this month we reported how Biden holdovers at the ATF are attempting to stall litigation on the ATF’s “engaged in the business” Final Rule by filing a motion asking for a stay. In response, GOA, Gun Owners Foundation (GOF) and the states of Texas, Louisiana, Utah and Mississippi filed an opposition to the DOJ’s motion, arguing that a stay in the ruling could harm gun owners across the nation.
Lately, some in the gun-rights community have been questioning the Trump Administration’s dedication to protecting the right to keep and bear arms in light of Trump only addressing guns once, in an executive order, in his first two months in office. In that order, he instructed new Attorney General Pam Bondi to “examine all orders, regulations, guidance, plans, international agreements, and other actions of executive departments and agencies (agencies) to assess any ongoing infringements of the Second Amendment rights.” The deadline for that report passed last week and at the time of this writing, Bondi still had not submitted a report.
