President Trump’s DOJ informed Congress on Thursday it will not appeal the ruling against suppressor registration handed down in Silencer Shop Foundation v. ATF.
Breitbart News reported the verdict in the case on August 5, 2026, noting that Judge James Wesley Hendrix in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas found registration requirements for suppressors and short barrel rifles and shotguns “unconstitutional” in the absence of a tax.
Silencer Shop Foundation filed the case in October 2025, after President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill succeeded in removing the $200 federal tax from suppressors and short barrel rifles and shotguns while leaving National Firearms Act registration requirements in place.
Then, on September 18, 2026, Breitbart News pointed to a CBS News report that President Trump ordered the Department of Justice (DOJ) not to appeal the ruling against suppressor registration.
Now, a letter from solicitor general D. John Sauer makes it official: The DOJ will not appeal.
The NRA posted Sauer’s letter to Congress, wherein he wrote, “…I write to inform you that the Department of Justice has determined not to file an appeal in [Silencer Shop Foundation v. ATF].”
Judge Hendrix’s ruling also included a second, consolidated case; together the cases involved a number of Second Amendment rights groups. The ruling against registration applies to current and future members of those groups.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He holds a PhD in Military History with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. He enjoys reading Philosophy and novels by Jack Carr and Nelson DeMille. He is a lever action man in an AR-15 world. Follow him on X: @awrhawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
