A Fifth Circuit panel has held the Federal Switchblade Act unconstitutional. In a published opinion in No. 25-10754, the court ruled that switchblade knives are Arms under the Second Amendment’s plain text. The Washington Times reported the decision on October 21, 2026. The holding goes to the Act’s 1958 manufacturing and interstate-commerce restrictions.
The Second Amendment’s text protects the right of the people to keep and bear Arms. The panel applied that language to switchblades. It did not confine “Arms” to firearms or to whatever class of weapon a later Congress found convenient to restrict. If the weapon is an Arm, the conduct sits inside the right unless the Nation’s historical tradition of regulation says otherwise.
Congress enacted the Federal Switchblade Act in 1958. The statute imposed manufacturing and interstate-commerce restrictions on switchblade knives. For decades those restrictions operated as if a mid-century commerce measure could fix the meaning of a constitutional right. The Fifth Circuit rejected that hierarchy.
New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen supplies the test. Once the plain text covers the Arms and the conduct, the government must show the regulation is consistent with this Nation’s historical tradition of arms regulation. The panel held that the 1958 manufacturing and interstate-commerce restrictions fail that historical-tradition test. A statute that cannot meet Bruen is not saved by its age or by the fact that it traveled under the commerce power.
That order of operations is the Constitution’s, not the 1958 Congress’s. Federal judges and officers swear to support the Constitution. When a federal manufacturing restriction and an interstate-commerce restriction collide with the Second Amendment, those restrictions fall. Bruen does not permit a later statute to override text and history. The panel applied that rule to the Federal Switchblade Act.
Published panel decisions of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit bind the federal district courts in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Knife-rights advocates, including Knife Rights, have tracked the Federal Switchblade Act as a live legislative and litigation issue. This opinion places the 1958 restrictions under the Second Amendment rather than above it.
Further review remains available through the ordinary appellate channels. Until a higher court says otherwise, the Fifth Circuit has held that switchblade knives are Arms and that the Federal Switchblade Act’s manufacturing and interstate-commerce restrictions are unconstitutional. The right to keep and bear Arms is not a privilege Congress may withdraw by a 1958 commerce restriction. Statutes yield. The oath remains to the Constitution.
References
- https://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/25/25-10754-CV0.pdf
- https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/oct/21/switchblade-act-ruled-unconstitutional-appeals-court/
- https://kniferights.org/legislative-update/
- https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/og-lookup/?file_path=recap/gov.uscourts.ca5.225116/gov.uscourts.ca5.225116.136.1.pdf