The rule in effect is rather narrow and doesn't actually ban home manufacturing. All the elements of a kit are still accessible and legal.
The only difference is that all the parts to finish the controlled part can't be sold together. So like you could by the 80% from one shop online and the jig from a different shop online. All the other parts wouldn't be affected in general, maybe an issue if sold with the 80%. And there are also other ways to do home manufacturing that would be completely unaffected but the rule.
Also the case isn't done. The order is a temporary stay where the court is asking the ATF lawyers to explain things.
I get what you're saying and the question is not out of line.
It makes a bit more sense if you think of the ATF as the FDA but for guns. They're supposed to be the subject matter expert. So it's not completely out of line for the court to ask them to explain matters relating to guns.
ATF has some rulemaking authority. For example, when Congress says "no commercial firearms sales without a licence", well, at what point between raw material and finished product is that object a firearm? ATF says it's at 80% completion.
The US supreme court on Tuesday granted a request by President Joe Biden’s administration to reinstate – at least for now – a federal regulation aimed at reining in privately made firearms called “ghost guns” that are difficult for law enforcement to trace.
The justices put on hold a 5 July decision by US district judge Reed O’Connor in Fort Worth, Texas, that had blocked the 2022 rule nationwide pending the administration’s appeal.
O’Connor found that the administration exceeded its authority under a 1968 federal law called the Gun Control Act in implementing the rule relating to ghost guns, firearms that are privately assembled and lack the usual serial numbers required by the federal government.
Shame on those Republican-appointed Justices who demand heightened security for themselves while they turn our elementary and high schools into killing grounds.