Trump Orders DOJ Not to Appeal Texas Ruling That Struck Down NFA Registration for Suppressors, SBRs, SBSs and AOWs

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WASHINGTON, DC — President Trump has ordered the Justice Department not to appeal the August 5, 2026 federal court ruling that struck down the National Firearms Act’s registration scheme for short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, silencers, and the category the law calls “any other weapons.” If that holds, a decision out of a San Angelo courtroom becomes the law for the plaintiffs and everyone the injunction covers, with no appellate court ever weighing in.

The president himself made the call, several sources with knowledge of the matter said, and he told some Republican members of Congress in recent weeks that he would ensure DOJ did not contest the decision, as reported by CBS News. A Justice Department official told CBS the department intends to tell Congress it will not appeal, and a DOJ spokesperson said ATF “will issue guidance soon to implement the court’s order.” CBS also reported that the ruling came from U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix, a Trump appointee, and that DOJ lawyers across multiple offices disagreed with the opinion, warned it is already hurting federal firearms prosecutions, and see the decision as a break from the department’s “duty to defend” laws Congress passed. No notice of appeal has been filed, and nothing in the record yet says one never will be.

The ruling is Silencer Shop Foundation v. ATF, No. 6:25-CV-056-H, in the Northern District of Texas, San Angelo Division, consolidated with Jensen v. ATF and decided on cross-motions for summary judgment, the stage where both sides agree the facts are settled and ask the judge to rule on the law. Congress passed the NFA in 1934 under its power to “lay and collect Taxes,” and for nearly 90 years the registration paperwork, fingerprints, and engraving were upheld as machinery for collecting that tax, going back to Sonzinsky v. United States in 1937. In 2025, Congress cut the transfer and making tax to zero for short-barreled shotguns, short-barreled rifles, silencers, and a defined group of miscellaneous firearms. A tax that raises no money is not a tax, so the regulations built to collect it cannot stand on the taxing power. Because Congress never invoked any other power when it wrote those provisions, the court refused to prop them up under the Commerce Clause and enjoined them, ordering the government to stop enforcing them against the parties covered by the order.

The court did not touch the Second Amendment. The plaintiffs raised both claims and invited the judge to decide the enumerated-powers question alone if it gave them full relief. He did. A ruling built on how Congress structured a statute is a harder target on appeal than one built on contested Second Amendment history.

According to the Second Amendment Foundation, which backs the Jensen plaintiffs, the judge gave the government one week to seek a stay pending appeal. The government let the deadline pass, and the permanent injunction took effect the morning of August 13, 2026. That same day the Jensen plaintiffs sent DOJ and ATF a letter asking whether the government will issue compliance guidance, in what form and when, whether it will keep enforcing the enjoined provisions against people not covered by the order, how it will avoid enforcing them against people who are covered, and how it will treat NFA items made or transferred under the injunction if the injunction is later stayed, modified, or dissolved. SAF noted the government has 60 days from the judgment to appeal. Until that window closes, or DOJ says in a filing what it has so far said only to reporters, an item built or transferred under this injunction carries a risk the buyer cannot fully price.

Scope is the other open question. Gun Owners of America’s FAQ from August 24 reads the injunction as protecting the plaintiffs and, where applicable, their current and future members and customers. GOA lists the plaintiffs as Gun Owners of America, Gun Owners Foundation, Silencer Shop Foundation, B&T USA, Palmetto State Armory, SilencerCo, the Firearms Regulatory Accountability Coalition, and Brady Wetz. That is not a nationwide repeal, and GOA says so, adding that as of that date DOJ and ATF had issued no guidance. State and local law is a separate layer entirely, the same way carry rules change at every state line, which is why I keep state-by-state permit information current and why GOA tells its members to talk to an attorney before assuming any transaction is lawful.

The White House framed the ruling as leaving the rest of federal gun law intact. “Anyone who would have been prohibited from buying a firearm under the old structure is still prohibited from buying a firearm under the structure that now exists after the federal district court’s decision,” a spokesperson told CBS. “All federal criminal statutes imposing additional charges or penalties for the unlawful possession of a firearm remain in place and will continue to be enforced by federal law enforcement.”

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This outcome rests on inaction. Congress zeroed the tax. The government skipped the stay deadline. The president, according to CBS, told his lawyers to stand down. There is no signed order from DOJ, no ATF rule, and no appellate opinion anyone can point to. The mindset I would bring here is the one I bring to carry law in an unfamiliar state: probably legal is not the same as knowing it is.

I will continue tracking Silencer Shop Foundation v. ATF, the 60-day appeal window, and any guidance ATF issues to implement the order.