Judge rules in TRA/NAR vs BATFE case

03/25/04 00:00:00    

By Michael Mealling

from ARSAnews

US Court Rules APCP Is An Explosive

ATFE Acted Improperly Revoking PAD Status For Rocket Motors

March 25, 2004 - Judge Reggie B. Walton of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia issued a summary judgement on two counts in the case brought by NAR and TRA against the ATFE on March 19th. The court ruled in favor of the ATFE in that ammonium perchlorate composite propellant (APCP) was properly placed on the ATFE Explosives List. Judge Walton decided the court did not have the technical and scientific expertise to decide whether APCP was actually an explosive and deferred to the expertise of the ATFE. Instead, the court focused on the narrow issue of whether the ATFE had acting within the legal boundaries set by Congress in placing an item on the Explosives List. He decided that the ATFE had followed proper procedures.

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The court ruled in favor of NAR and TRA on the issue of the ATFE's decision to reclassify model rocket motors from propellant-actuated devices (PADs) to non-PAD status. The ATFE had issued two conflicting letters on the applicability of the PAD exemption to model rocket motors.

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Consequently the court ruled that fully assembled sport rocket motors are PADs and exempt from the ATFE permit requirements.

see the story page on ARSAnews for the complete story and links to the court documents

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