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Trump’s DOJ Drops Appeal In Suit Targeting Post Office Carry Ban

Trump’s DOJ Drops Appeal In Suit Targeting Post Office Carry Ban

(Screen Capture/PBS NewsHour)

Harold Hutchison
July 17, 2026 9:42 AM ET

The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Thursday dropped an appeal of a court order that struck down a ban on carrying firearms in post offices.

The Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) and Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) sued the Biden administration in June 2024 over the prohibition of carrying firearms at post offices, seeking to have it invalidated on Second Amendment grounds. The DOJ made its position known in a Thursday filing that consisted of two sentences.

“Pursuant to Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 42(b), defendant-appellant hereby moves to voluntarily dismiss this appeal, with each party to bear its own costs,” the filing says. “Counsel for plaintiffs-appellees indicated that plaintiffs-appellees do not oppose this motion.”

Chief Judge Reed O’Connor of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, a George W. Bush nominee, issued a nationwide injunction on Sept. 30, 2025, blocking enforcement of a provision in federal law and a regulation as they pertained to carrying firearms. The DOJ’s decision to drop the appeal made to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit means that the injunction will remain in effect.

“The Court joins with courts who have held that the Government as a property owner must abide by Bruen’s Second Amendment analysis,” O’Connor wrote. “Thus, because the Government has not shown any relevantly similar historical analogue to support banning firearms in ordinary post-offices or on postal property, the Court finds that 18 U.S.C.§930(a) and 39 C.F.R.§232.1(1) violate the Second Amendment with respect to the possession and carriage of firearms in post offices and on post office property.”

The decision to drop the appeal came three weeks after the Supreme Court put a stake through the heart of what pro-Second Amendment groups called the “vampire rule” in Wolford v. Lopez, striking down a Hawaii law that prohibited concealed carry unless private property owners had explicitly allowed it.

The DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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