Guns, Background Checks, Administrative Law, and the Sixth Circuit Michigan Case
Traditionally, ATF has declared whether state permits qualify as instant check alternatives by publishing a "Permanent Brady Permit Chart" online and in a "Public Safety Advisory" to a state's federal firearm licensees. In regulating through these informal mechanisms, ATF is doing one of two things, and both are procedurally problematic under the Administrative Procedure Act.
The first possibility is that despite ATF's portrayal of the letters and permit charts as binding, they actually constitute non-binding sub-regulatory guidance from ATF to Federal Firearm Licensees. If that is the case, Michigan gun stores could just ignore ATF's letter and continue accepting Michigan concealed pistol licensees as alternatives if they were certain that the licenses met the requirements of the Brady Act.
The second possibility—what ATF is likely doing—is issuing binding rules (or conducting binding adjudication) without public notice and comment and without the opportunity of affected stakeholders to participate. ATF's letter, which announces "an important change to the procedure [federal firearms licensees] must follow to comply with the Brady [law]," suggests that when ATF determines that a permit does not qualify, ATF considers its determination as legally binding. If so, ATF's determination is "one by which rights or obligations have been determined, or from which legal consequences will flow."