The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and its partners have filed a legal brief in response to the federal government’s attempt to limit the reach of an injunction against the U.S. Post Office carry ban.
In September, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas ruled in favor of SAF, declaring that the ban on carrying firearms on post office property was unconstitutional. The court enjoined enforcement of this law against SAF members and other plaintiffs.
Following this decision, the government requested that the injunction apply only to specifically named plaintiffs and those who were members of SAF or its partner organizations at the time the complaint was filed, provided their membership could be identified and verified.
SAF executive director Adam Kraut commented on this development: “The critical thing to remember here is that the government is fighting tooth and nail to continue enforcing an unconstitutional law against as many people as possible. The DOJ’s position that it would be ‘impossible’ for it to know who was protected by the injunction without a membership list is just plain silly. If officials want to know if someone found to be carrying at a post office is a SAF member they can simply ask.”
The brief submitted by SAF on November 18 stated: “… if the Government believes that merely asking whether an individual is covered by the injunction is somehow ‘enforcing’ the Post Office Ban, there is no amount of information about Plaintiffs or their members that Plaintiffs could give the Government that would render compliance possible.”
The lawsuit, which began in June 2024 under FPC v. Bondi, challenges federal restrictions on carrying firearms at post offices and related properties. SAF’s partners in this case include Firearms Policy Coalition and two private citizens.
Alan M. Gottlieb, founder and executive vice president of SAF, said: “When we file a case, we do so on behalf of all SAF members. The carry ban on U.S. Post Office property affects countless peaceable citizens nationwide who visit post offices every day to conduct their business. A Federal District Judge has declared the law unconstitutional, and yet the government’s knee-jerk reaction is to continue enforcing it against as many Americans as possible. Decades of settled case law says that it’s wrong.”
