A federal judge in Seattle decided [order] Monday to extend a preliminary injunction effectively forbidding a Texan gun-rights activist from publishing plans for untraceable 3D printed firearms.

The injunction prevents the federal government from implementing a settlement agreement it had reached in June with Cody Wilson, the activist who intended to publish the plans, that would have let him publish the plans as well as change rules surrounding the publication of files for the production of 3D printed weapons.

Eight states and the District of Colombia brought the action against the federal government alleging that they did not have the authorization to make such a settlement under the Tenth Amendment to the US Constitution [text] and the Administrative Procedure Act [text, PDF].

In his ruling, Judge Robert Lasnik said that the harm that states would be subjected to would outweigh any free speech concerns about the settlement. Lasnik noted that “Promising to detect the undetectable while at the same time removing a significant regulatory hurdle to the proliferation of these weapons … rings hollow and in no way ameliorates, much less avoids, the harms that are likely to befall the states if an injunction is not issued.”