Is the Supreme Court retreating from its landmark vindication of the Constitution in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen? Today’s ruling upholding Biden-era regulations on so-called “ghost guns” gives one pause, especially because it features a dissent by the author of Bruen, Justice Clarence Thomas. The high court’s senior justice decries the majority for backing “the Government’s overreach” in regulating homemade gun kits.

The homespun firearms — largely untraceable and assembled from what the ATF calls “weapon parts kits” — recently made headlines when the accused assassin of UnitedHealthcare’s chief executive reportedly used a ghost gun in the crime. Some 27,000 ghost guns were recovered by authorities from crime scenes in 2023, the Justice Department says, compared with less than 1,700 in 2017. President Biden sought to regulate ghost guns in 2022.