WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld Biden-administration restrictions on “ghost guns” that Ohio Republicans, including Attorney General Dave Yost, argued was overreach.

At issue was a rule that former President Joe Biden announced at the same time he nominated former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio Steve Dettelbach to head the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

It clarified that so-called “ghost gun” kits qualify as “firearms” under the 1968 Gun Control Act, and that commercial manufacturers of the kits must therefore become licensed and include serial numbers on the kits’ frame or receiver. The rule required commercial sellers of the kits to become federally licensed and run background checks prior to a sale, as they must do with other commercially-made firearms.

The rules were enacted after law enforcement agencies said the “ghost guns”, which are difficult to trace because they lack serial numbers, were becoming more widely used by criminals. Legal papers filed in the case indicated the number of untraceable “ghost guns” used in crimes rose from 1,600 in 2017 to more than 19,000 in 2021.

Before Dettelbach’s agency could enforce the rule issued in 2022, gun makers argued in a legal challenge that the Gun Control Act couldn’t be applied to the kits. The Supreme Court rejected that argument in a 7-2 decision.

The decision authored by conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch noted that the kits enable a person without any specialized knowledge to construct a working firearm using everyday tools in less than an hour. It concludes that the Gun Control Act “embraces, and thus permits ATF to regulate, some weapon parts kits and unfinished frames or receivers.”

Gorsuch said that not all gun kits would qualify as ghost guns.

“Some products may be so far from a finished frame or receiver that they cannot fairly be described using those terms,” he wrote. “But this case requires us to explore none of that.”

Gorsuch conceded that the court’s “reasoning has its limits.” “Some products,” he wrote, “may be so far from a finished frame or receiver that they cannot fairly be described using those terms. But this case,” he concluded, “requires us to explore none of that.”

Conservative Justices Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Clarence Thomas disagreed with the decision and filed dissents.

“Congress could have authorized ATF to regulate any part of a firearm or any object readily convertible into one,” Thomas wrote. “But, it did not. I would adhere to the words Congress enacted.”

A statement from Dettelbach, who left ATF when Donald Trump entered the White House, said the Supreme Court decision will make it possible to enforce the Gun Control Act of 1968 and protect the lives of Americans from unregulated and untraceable ghost guns.

“It is now incumbent on Congress and the Administration to fully support the brave men and women of ATF and their law enforcement partners to implement the rule that the Supreme Court approved today,” said Dettelbach. “If that happens, today’s decision will save lives.”

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost joined a group of his counterparts in other states in a legal brief that argued the Biden administration overstepped what it was allowed to do under the law and the legislative branch would have to address the problem.

“The regulation of parts kits, like sports gambling and many other controversial subjects, requires important policy choices—but the choice is not for agencies or courts to make,“ said the brief Yost signed. ”The solution to those concerns lies in the halls of Congress, not in the chambers of the Supreme Court.”

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, a Champaign County Republican, also criticized the policy in letters to Dettelbach, describing it as “a deliberate attempt to usurp the authority of Congress,” and arguing it unconstitutionally infringes “on American citizens’ fundamental Second Amendment rights and privacy rights under the Fourth Amendment.”

John Feinblatt, who heads the Everytown for Gun Safety gun control group, called the decision “great news for everyone but the criminals who have adopted untraceable ghost guns as their weapons of choice.

“Ghost guns look like regular guns, shoot like regular guns, and kill like regular guns — so it’s only logical that the Supreme Court just affirmed they can also be regulated like regular guns,” said a statement from Feinblatt.

The firearms rights NRA responded to the ruling by calling on the new presidential administration to rescind the rule, saying in a social media post that it “inhibits law-abiding Americans from exercising their constitutional rights.”

Brady United chief legal officer Douglas Letter told reporters that ghost guns created a major problem for law enforcement, and said their use declined dramatically after the rule was put in place.

“Given that it saves so many lives … it’s unclear why anybody would want to withdraw this rule,” Letter told reporters.