The Department of Justice has formally notified Congress that it will not appeal a federal court ruling that struck down registration requirements for suppressors, short-barrel rifles and short-barrel shotguns — making official a decision that had been signaled for weeks.
According to Breitbart News, a letter from Solicitor General D. John Sauer informed lawmakers that the department has “determined not to file an appeal” in Silencer Shop Foundation v. ATF. The National Rifle Association posted Sauer’s letter to Congress, which Breitbart reported on Thursday.
The underlying ruling came from Judge James Wesley Hendrix of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. As Breitbart reported on August 5, 2026, Hendrix concluded that registration mandates for suppressors and short-barrel rifles and shotguns are “unconstitutional” when no accompanying tax applies.
How the Case Reached This Point
The litigation traces back to October 2025, when the Silencer Shop Foundation filed suit. The action followed passage of President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, which eliminated the $200 federal tax on suppressors and short-barrel rifles and shotguns while leaving the National Firearms Act’s registration architecture untouched.
That mismatch — no tax, but still a registry — became the crux of the plaintiffs’ argument, and ultimately the basis for Hendrix’s decision. The ruling also resolved a second, consolidated case, and together the matters involved multiple Second Amendment rights organizations. Under the court’s order, the prohibition on registration applies both to current members of those groups and to future members.
The DOJ’s decision not to appeal had been anticipated. On September 18, 2026, Breitbart pointed to a CBS News report indicating that President Trump had directed the department to refrain from challenging the ruling. Thursday’s letter converts that directive into a formal position communicated to Congress.
The practical consequence is that the district court’s judgment stands. With no appeal, the holding that registration requirements cannot be enforced absent a tax remains in effect for those covered by the ruling, and the legal questions it raises are left undisturbed by the appellate courts for now.
The case represents an unusual convergence: a tax repeal that left a regulatory requirement in place, a district judge who found the remaining requirement unsupportable without the tax, and an administration that opted against defending the provision on appeal. Each step narrowed the NFA’s reach as applied to the categories of firearms at issue.
Whether the decision prompts further litigation, legislative action, or administrative adjustments at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is not addressed in the source material. What is now settled is the department’s posture: it will not ask a higher court to revive the registration mandate.
Reporting on the Sauer letter and the case’s procedural history was originally published by Breitbart News.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/2nd-amendment/2026/10/02/doj-makes-it-official-tells-congress-it-will-not-appeal-ruling-against-suppressor-registration/