DOJ Reverses Course on Defending Biden’s ‘Engaged in the Business’ Rule for Gun Sales

Gun Owners of America is celebrating a win in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals after the Department of Justice abruptly reversed course in a lawsuit challenging the ATF’s expanded definition of who is “engaged in the business” of dealing firearms that was put into effect under the Biden administration and then-ATF Director Steve Dettelbach. 

The rule was explicitly designed to get as close as possible to “universal” background checks without a new law being passed by Congress, and treated the vast majority of private, person-to-person sales as those that should be conducted by a federally licensed firearms dealer. The attorneys general of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Utah, along with GOA, the Virginia Citizens Defense League, and Tennessee Firearms Association filed a lawsuit to block the law from being enforced, and a district court granted a preliminary injunction barring enforcement against the plaintiffs in June, 2024. 

Biden’s DOJ appealed that decision, though, and the Trump administration continued to defend the rule even as officials said that virtually every one of Biden’s executive actions on firearms were in the process of being undone. 

On Thursday, however, the DOJ filed a request with the Fifth Circuit to voluntarily dismiss its appeal with the plaintiffs’ consent. In their request, the DOJ’s attorneys said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives “plans to revisit” the rule and “revis[e] the guidelines for determining who is considered ‘engaged in the business’ of selling firearms.” 

The DOJ also informed the court (and the rest ofus) that a notice of proposed rulemaking addressing the “engaged in the business rule” is “forthcoming”, and that in light of the proposed rule on the horizon the government “has determined that it is not appropriate to continue this appeal.”

This is good news on two fronts, even if’s overdue. For one, it shows the DOJ is actually capable of declining to defend every federal rule and regulation regarding firearms. Even with the ban on mailing handguns, which the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel determined likely violates the Constitution, the DOJ is asking the courts to allow them to continue enforcing the current statute while a new rule that complies with the Constitution is going through the rulemaking process. 

🚨USPS UPDATE🚨@TheJusticeDept just argued our judge should let @USPS keep violating the Second Amendment for the foreseeable future.

No, this isn’t a joke.

SCOTUS says any constitutional violation is irreparable harm—so how is this even an argument?! https://t.co/Lt2rPOUbks pic.twitter.com/rvcdrGddKJ

— Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) April 15, 2026

DOJ’s decision to drop its appeal in Texas v. BATFE is welcome news, because the agency could have argued to the Fifth Circuit that the “engaged in the business rule” should still be enforced until it’s replaced by a new rule. In fact, it’s kind of odd that the DOJ is taking what appears to be contradictory positions in Texas and Shreve, given that both of the rules that are in question are in the process of being removed. 

The DOJ’s inconsistency is still a problem, to be sure. But the other positive aspect of the agency’s decision to drop its appeal in Texas v. BATFE is that it looks like the ATF is finally getting around to formally undoing the Biden-era rules that were put in place. The same lengthy process of adopting a rule is used to repeal and replace one, so the sweeping “engaged in the business” language won’t be undone overnight… but now we have official word that it will be going away in the relatively near future. 

Editor’s Note: President Trump and Republicans across the country are doing everything they can to protect our Second Amendment rights and right to self-defense.

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