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VietnameseGriffin: ‘Arkansas’s standing in the case should never have been in question’
LITTLE ROCK – Attorney General Tim Griffin today issued the following statement after filing a motion for reconsideration in a lawsuit challenging the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ new unlawful rule expanding the definition of who must become a federally licensed firearms dealer:
“On May 1, I co-led a multistate lawsuit challenging the ATF’s rule that radically expanded the definition of who must be a federally licensed firearms dealer. I filed suit against the ATF because only Congress can make laws, and Congress has never passed into law the ATF’s dramatic new expansion of firearms dealer license requirements.
“Last week, a federal district court in Little Rock ordered our case to be transferred to a federal district court in Kansas. That order dismissed Arkansas from the case on the grounds that the state would financially benefit from the ATF rule. But that’s not the case, and the Little Rock court’s order only concluded otherwise by ignoring basic tax law. That’s why we’ve asked the Kansas court to reconsider and correct the Little Rock court’s flawed order.
“Moreover, in ordering our case’s immediate transfer, the Little Rock order also violated Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals precedent requiring ‘district court clerks [to] … wait a reasonable period before transferring case files after a transfer order is entered.’ That precedent exists to ensure the Eighth Circuit can review and correct erroneous transfer orders before they become effective, yet the Little Rock order unlawfully short-circuited that process, depriving Arkansas of the opportunity to obtain reversal of the district court’s erroneous order.
“The ATF’s unlawful rule is yet another in a long line of federal overreaches by the Biden administration. This rule harms Arkansans, and Arkansas’s standing in the case should never have been in question. I look forward to continuing to defend the people of Arkansas—even if an erroneous ruling requires me to do so in Kansas.”
To read the brief in support of motion for reconsideration, click here.
For a printer-friendly version of this release, click here.
About Attorney General Tim Griffin
Tim Griffin was sworn in as the 57th Attorney General of Arkansas on January 10, 2023, having previously served as the state’s 20th Lieutenant Governor from 2015-2023. From 2011-2015, Griffin served as the 24th representative of Arkansas’s Second Congressional District, where he served on the House Committee on Ways and Means, House Armed Services Committee, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, House Committee on Ethics and House Committee on the Judiciary while also serving as a Deputy Whip for the Majority.
Griffin has served as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps for more than 27 years and currently holds the rank of colonel. In 2005, Griffin was mobilized to active duty as an Army prosecutor at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and served with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) in Mosul, Iraq.
He is currently serving as the Commander of the 2d Legal Operations Detachment in New Orleans, Louisiana. His previous assignments include serving as the Commander of the 134th Legal Operations Detachment at Fort Liberty (née Bragg), North Carolina, and as a Senior Legislative Advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness at the Pentagon. Griffin earned a master’s degree in strategic studies as a Distinguished Honor Graduate from the U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.
Griffin also served as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, and Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Political Affairs for President George W. Bush; Special Assistant to Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff, Criminal Division, U.S. Department of Justice; Special Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Arkansas; Senior Investigative Counsel, Government Reform and Oversight Committee, U.S. House of Representatives; and Associate Independent Counsel, Office of Independent Counsel David M. Barrett, In re: HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros.
Griffin is a graduate of Magnolia High School, Hendrix College in Conway, and Tulane Law School in New Orleans. He attended graduate school at Oxford University. He is admitted to practice law in Arkansas (active) and Louisiana (inactive). Griffin lives in Little Rock with his wife, Elizabeth, a Camden native, and their three children.
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