Analysis: What to Make of New DOJ Second Amendment Section [Member Exclusive]

The Division of Justice (DOJ) has introduced plans to create the first-ever devoted Second Modification part inside the company’s Civil Rights Division. However so far, the company hasn’t been too keen to speak about it, and the reported rollout date for the brand new part to start operations has already come and gone with none motion.

Officers from the DOJ solely publicly confirmed the existence of the deliberate part for the primary time on Friday night time after greater than per week of media reviews.

“The 2nd Modification shouldn’t be a second-class proper. After the prior administration’s marketing campaign to infringe on People’ gun rights, the Justice Division is strongly dedicated to undoing the harm,” Legal professional Common Pam Bondi (R.) wrote in a social media submit. “This unit inside our Civil Rights Division will advance President Trump’s pro-2nd Modification agenda and defend the fitting to bear arms for all.”

Particulars in regards to the transfer have been first reported by Reuters final week, although the plans for the brand new entity seem to have been months within the making. In a September interview with an alumni publication for her alma mater, Assistant Legal professional Common and chief of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division Harmeet Dhillon introduced that plans for the brand new part have been already within the works as early as this summer time.

In response to planning paperwork supplied to Congress and obtained by Reuters, the proposed new part can be tasked primarily with “investigating native legal guidelines or insurance policies limiting gun rights,” and it will perform that work “utilizing present funds and personnel.” The paperwork additionally recognized December 4th as the brand new part’s anticipated opening date.

Nonetheless, the DOJ has but to formally announce the brand new part past Bondi’s social media submit, and it stays absent from the Civil Rights Division’s group web page. The DOJ additionally has not responded to The Reload’s requests for touch upon particulars in regards to the new division.

But whereas the logistics and begin date of the part stay murky, the promise of such a transfer for gun-rights advocates is self-evident. The symbolic worth alone of getting an institutionalized arm of the world’s largest regulation workplace devoted to pursuing its pursuits throughout the nation is an achievement. It stands in distinction to the unprecedented actions taken by the prior administration to elevate gun-control pursuits right into a since-disbanded executive-level workplace.

Not like the Biden administration’s Workplace of Gun Violence Prevention, nevertheless, a brand new Second Modification part below the Civil Rights Division would have lively enforcement authority. That might translate to actual upside for gun-rights advocates. The Civil Rights Division has already proven a willingness to flex its muscular tissues towards progressive jurisdictions seen as violating the gun rights of their respective residents.

In March, it launched a first-of-its-kind “sample or observe” investigation into the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division for its gradual processing of hid handgun license purposes. Merging that case-by-case intervention right into a centralized physique with a singular mission ought to create higher alternatives for oversight and enforcement actions throughout extra jurisdictions. That’s definitely the place expectations look like among the many gun coverage neighborhood, as evidenced by the fanfare and controversy mere reviews of the brand new division have generated up to now.

After all, there are additionally severe caveats to contemplate.

The DOJ’s lack of transparency so far in regards to the new part means we simply don’t know the way formidable the brand new plans are or what they’ll seem like in observe. There’s little motive to doubt the veracity of the reviews from Reuters, notably contemplating Assistant Legal professional Common Dhillon’s previous public feedback. However the truth that the reorganization will possible happen with none extra funding or personnel raises the likelihood that the transfer will quantity to little greater than slapping a brand new identify on the identical work we’ve already seen.

And at last, there’s motive to query the endurance of the brand new part and its work. What could be created via a unilateral reorganization may also be disbanded via the identical means below a subsequent administration. Simply have a look at the unceremonious dismantling of the White Home Workplace of Gun Violence Prevention from earlier this yr.

Finally, the mere existence of a devoted federal civil rights workplace targeted on the Second Modification is a crucial achievement for the gun-rights motion. However with out extra formal indications from the DOJ concerning its launch, staffing, and technique, it’s tough to say whether or not it should quantity to extra substance than flash.