At issue was how the Biden administration had interpreted a federal statute to regulate kits that could be assembled into homemade guns, skirting background checks.

The U.S. Supreme Court signaled on Tuesday a willingness to uphold the legality of a 2022 regulation issued by President Joe Biden's administration cracking down on "ghost guns," largely untraceable firearms whose use has proliferated in crimes nationwide.

A Supreme Court argument about the government’s ability to ban so-called ghost guns took some unusual turns Tuesday as the justices mused about grocery orders, western omelets and the challenges of assembling IKEA furniture.