Feds Fold Appeal In Texas Fight Over Post Office Gun Ban

The Justice Department is backing away from its appeal of a federal judge’s decision that struck down the government’s ban on carrying firearms in U.S. post offices, leaving a nationwide injunction blocking enforcement in place. The move delivers a clear legal win to two gun-rights groups that sued over Postal Service carry rules.

The Department of Justice filed a motion to voluntarily dismiss its appeal of the district court’s September ruling, according to Tampa Free Press. With the government’s withdrawal, the district-court injunction that stopped enforcement of the ban remains in effect.

The suit was decided in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. The court’s September 30, 2025 memorandum opinion held the blanket prohibition unconstitutional, and a March 17, 2026 order clarified that the injunction “applies to Plaintiffs and to all present and future members” of the organizational plaintiffs, per the court records. See the district court’s opinion and the court’s March 17 clarification for the full findings and remedial language.

Plaintiff leaders quickly claimed victory. “This is huge news for SAF members,” Bill Sack, the Second Amendment Foundation’s senior director of legal operations, said, and SAF founder Alan M. Gottlieb told Tampa Free Press the government had effectively “seen the writing on the wall” about losing the case.

What the ruling covers

The court enjoined enforcement of the federal facility statute and the Postal Service regulation that together had banned firearms on post office property, 18 U.S.C. § 930(a) and 39 C.F.R. § 232.1, as applied to the plaintiffs’ carrying and possession of firearms inside ordinary post offices and their surrounding property. See Cornell Law School and eCFR for the statutory and regulatory text.

Appeal timeline and what’s next

The government appealed to the Fifth Circuit (No. 25-11328) after the district court’s decision, and the appellate docket shows briefs and scheduling activity before the DOJ’s voluntary dismissal. The dismissal leaves the district-court injunction in place for now, though the issues around which federal locations qualify as “sensitive places” under current Second Amendment doctrine are likely to keep producing litigation.

Bottom line: ordinary visitors to post offices who are members of the plaintiffs’ organizations are now shielded from enforcement of the blanket post-office carry ban under the injunction, but the underlying legal debate over where firearms may be regulated in public spaces remains unsettled and could resurface in other courts or rulemaking.