Major Press Outlets Side With GOA in Lawsuit Over ATF Records

More than two dozen media outlets and journalists’ associations are backing Gun Owners of America in its attempt to publish ATF records the agency inadvertently turned over to the group as part of a Freedom of Information Act request. 

GOA originally filed the request in 2021, seeking information about the ATF’s use and monitoring of the FBI’s National Instant Background Check System. The group end up filing a lawsuit after ATF failed to produce any documents, and the agency eventually produced at least some of the material that GOA was after.

The ATF, however, also turned over some documents that it claims was not a part of the FOIA request and demanded the group delete those records. When GOA refused to do so, the agency successfully sought a court order barring the organization from disseminating that information. GOA has appealed that decision, and as the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press reports, many media outlets (including some on the left) are now siding with Gun Owners of America by filing an amicus brief with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals urging the appellate court to overturn the lower court decision and let GOA publish the material as it sees fit. 

From the Brief: “If agencies can obtain court orders requiring news organizations to destroy or refrain from disseminating information they lawfully obtained from the agency under FOIA by claiming the information was ‘inadvertently’ disclosed and could have been withheld pursuant to a FOIA exemption, agencies will gain a tool that lies outside both the Act and the Constitution to stifle the press — a tool that they have over at least the last decade shown a desire to have.”

Related: In January 2025, the D.C. Circuit vacated a district court ruling in a FOIA lawsuit preventing the dissemination of records that had been inadvertently released by the U.S. Park Police. A media coalition led by the Reporters Committee had urged the appeals court to reach that decision, arguing that the lower court’s ruling imposed an unconstitutional prior restraint.

Are media outlets like The Atlantic, Axios, National Public Radio, and The New York Times siding with GOA out of their own self-interest? Absolutely. In their view, this fight has nothing to do with the Second Amendment. It’s a pure First Amendment case, and as much as the mainstream media denigrates the Second Amendment it depends on the First for its survival. 

Still, it’s nice to see these media outlets believe (or at least argue) that GOA is entitled to the same First Amendment protections as “professional” journalists or media entities. The “freedom of the press” doesn’t refer to a body of paid journalists. It’s about ensuring we the people have access to the printing press and its 21st century equivalents; that the government cannot quash the dissemination of information just because  it doesn’t want that information out there.  As they argue in the amicus brief:

Even if the information subject to the Order could have been withheld under exemptions to FOIA, that does not relieve ATF of its First Amendment burden to justify its requested prior restraint on the dissemination or publication of that information once the government has disclosed it.

The Pentagon Papers were classified, and could have been withheld under Exemption 1 if requested under FOIA. But the mere fact that they wer esubject to a potential Exemption 1 denial did not relieve the government of its obligation to provide adequate “justification for the imposition of” an order restraining their publication by The New YorkTimes and The Washington Post. Simply put, that the Pentagon Papers were classified and met the criteria for a FOIA exemption was an insufficient basis under the First Amendment to justify a prior restraint.

The amici also cite a case known as Florida Star to argue that Supreme Court precedent “makes clear that the First Amendment prohibits punishing a news organization for publishing truthful information it lawfully obtained from the government, even if the government provided that information by mistake and was required to withhold it pursuant to statute.”

The ATF may not have intended to give these documents to Gun Owners of America, but once they did GOA was under no obligation ((other than the court order the government managed to obtain) to destroy it or keep it shielded from public view. To rule otherwise would allow the government to deny the dissemination of all kinds of government documents, and would make it impossible for we the people to serve as watchdogs against government overreach. Many of these press outlets may get the Second Amendment all wrong, but they’re absolutely correct about GOA’s First Amendment rights, and the D.C. Circuit should reverse the lower court decision and allow GOA to publish as many of these documents as they want.  

Editor’s Note: Despite their support for GOA’s lawsuit against the ATF, too many mainstream media outlets continue to lie about gun owners and the Second Amendment. 

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