UPDATED: AG Tim Griffin vs. Biden Admin: Bryan Malinowski

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Griffin: ‘Arkansas’s standing in the case should never have been in question’

MAY 29, 2024

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin issued the following statement Wednesday after filing a motion for reconsideration in a lawsuit challenging the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ new unlawful rule expanding the definition of who must become a federally licensed firearms dealer: 

“On May 1, I co-led a multistate lawsuit challenging the ATF’s rule that radically expanded the definition of who must be a federally licensed firearms dealer. I filed suit against the ATF because only Congress can make laws, and Congress has never passed into law the ATF’s dramatic new expansion of firearms dealer license requirements. 

“Last week, a federal district court in Little Rock ordered our case to be transferred to a federal district court in Kansas. That order dismissed Arkansas from the case on the grounds that the state would financially benefit from the ATF rule. But that’s not the case, and the Little Rock court’s order only concluded otherwise by ignoring basic tax law. That’s why we’ve asked the Kansas court to reconsider and correct the Little Rock court’s flawed order.

“Moreover, in ordering our case’s immediate transfer, the Little Rock order also violated Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals precedent requiring ‘district court clerks [to] … wait a reasonable period before transferring case files after a transfer order is entered.’ That precedent exists to ensure the Eighth Circuit can review and correct erroneous transfer orders before they become effective, yet the Little Rock order unlawfully short-circuited that process, depriving Arkansas of the opportunity to obtain reversal of the district court’s erroneous order. 

“The ATF’s unlawful rule is yet another in a long line of federal overreaches by the Biden administration. This rule harms Arkansans, and Arkansas’s standing in the case should never have been in question. I look forward to continuing to defend the people of Arkansas—even if an erroneous ruling requires me to do so in Kansas.”

Gary Epperson, president of Gun Owners of Arkansas, said in an email to South Arkansas Reckoning, “Gun Owners of Arkansas fully support Attorney General Griffin’s attempts to add Arkansas back into the lawsuit. With Kansas in a different federal circuit, it would leave all gun owners in our state vulnerable to tyrannical actions by the BATF as we experienced with Mr. Malinowski. By keeping Arkansas a part of the lawsuit and a favorable opinion from the 8th Circuit, it would create a harder obstacle for the BATF in targeting everyday gun owners.

“As we’ve seen with the issuance of the search warrant against Mr. Malinowski, when there really was no cause and now removing us from the lawsuit, it sure casts suspicions on our federal judges and their agenda.”

Bud Cummins, attorney for the Malinowski family, told South Arkansas Reckoning, “I do believe that litigation will show that the previous regulation and the new one are both unintelligible leaving ATF to interpret them as they see fit, when they see fit, with no warning to the people who are involved in the activity. The new regulation also appears to exceed the authority granted to the agency by Congress. Those factors are directly relevant to the death of Bryan Malinowski.”

Arkansas state Rep. Matt Duffield, who recently led a coalition of legislators at a press conference questioning the ATF’s actions in the Malinowski raid, said, “An injustice was done to Bryan Malinowski by agents of the ATF. I appreciate the efforts of the Attorney General to see justice done, to hold ATF’s feet to the fire, and to get answers to the many questions raised about what happened and why.

Like many in Arkansas I have a low opinion of bureaucrats who mess with our second amendment rights and wish him well with this case.”

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