- Harris County, joined by two other local governments and represented by a leftist interest group, filed an amicus brief supporting the constitutionality of the National Firearms Act
- The brief was filed in a lawsuit brought by gun rights advocates
- Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee has been accused of politicizing his office to benefit his Congressional campaign
Three local governments, including Harris County, Texas, have filed a brief in opposition to legal claims made by gun rights advocates in a lawsuit seeking to have provisions of the National Firearms Act declared unconstitutional.
The Silencer Shop Foundation, joined by Gun Owners of America and six other plaintiffs, filed suit against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms earlier this year, challenging provisions of the National Firearms Act.
“Enacted in 1934, the National Firearms Act (“NFA”) is premised on Congress’s taxing power. The Act imposed a $200 tax (approximately $5,000 in today’s dollars) on the manufacture and transfer of particular classes of firearms. The NFA’s authors left no doubt that the NFA was an exercise of the taxing power, and the Supreme Court upheld it on that basis. This has been the uncontroversial understanding of courts and commentators for nearly a century.
But the NFA no longer imposes any tax on the vast majority of firearms it purports to regulate. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Congress and the President enacted on July 4, 2025, zeroes the manufacture and transfer tax on nearly all NFA-regulated firearms. That means the constitutional foundation on which the NFA rested has dissolved. See, e.g., United States v. Constantine, 296 U.S. 287, 295 (1935) (provision that does not generate revenue cannot be justified as a tax). And the NFA cannot be upheld under any other Article I power. With respect to the untaxed firearms, the Act is now unconstitutional,” reads the lawsuit, which was filed in the San Angelo Division of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
Harris County, joined by the cities of Baltimore, Maryland, and Columbus, Ohio, filed an amicus brief in the lawsuit on December 2. The governments argue that the National Firearms Act is indeed constitutional and characterize the gun rights advocates’ arguments as “meritless.”
“This case is about whether we continue to have basic, common-sense safety measures that keep dangerous weapons out of the wrong hands,” said Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee. “There is nothing radical about requiring safeguards for weapons that are designed with concealability or silence in mind. There is nothing un-American about regulations that ensure guns don’t end up with dangerous people and that hold manufacturers accountable when they are making weapons. For decades, these laws have helped local governments protect residents and respond to gun crimes.”
Harris County’s amicus brief in the National Firearms Act litigation is the latest example of Menefee’s office participating in politically charged litigation that critics argue is not related to the governance of Harris County. Menefee, a Democrat, is currently running to fill the vacancy in Congressional District 18 created by the passing of Sylvester Turner earlier this year. He faces former Houston City Councilwoman Amanda Edwards in a January 31 runoff election.
Menefee is also seeking the Democratic nomination for the seat in a contest that features Edwards and Congressman Al Green, who chose to run in Congressional District 18 after his current district was redrawn to favor a Republican.
Harris County was represented in the brief by the Democracy Forward Foundation, which described supporters of the lawsuit as “extremists.” According to its website, the Foundation aims to “[disrupt] unlawful, regressive, and anti-democratic activity through litigation, legal action, and public education” and has sued the Trump administration over 100 times.
