Missouri law targeting federal gun curbs is unconstitutional, court rules

[August 27, 2024]  By Nate Raymond
 
(Reuters) - A federal appeals court delivered a victory on Monday to President Joe Biden's administration by ruling that a state law adopted by Republican-led Missouri, which declared several federal gun laws "invalid," was unconstitutional.  

A person tries out a handgun during the annual National Rifle Association (NRA) meeting in Dallas, Texas, U.S., May 17, 2024. REUTERS/Shelby Tauber/File Photo

A three-judge panel of the St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Missouri's bid to reverse a lower-court judge's decision to bar the state from enforcing a 2021 law called the Second Amendment Preservation Act.

The U.S. Department of Justice sued Missouri in 2022 to block the law, which was signed the prior year by Republican Governor Mike Parson and was named for the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment, which enshrines the right "to keep and bear arms."

The law declared that certain federal regulations governing the sale, taxation and possession of firearms would be deemed by Missouri infringements on the rights of individuals to keep and bear arms under the Second Amendment.

The law threatened state and local officials with fines of up to $50,000 for knowingly enforcing federal gun laws considered by the state legislature to violate the amendment.

The Biden administration has said the law unconstitutionally impeded the government's ability to enforce federal law.

It said the law caused many Missouri state and local law enforcement agencies to stop voluntarily assisting in the enforcement of federal gun laws or providing investigative assistance.

Missouri argued the law was constitutional because the state was allowed to withdraw the authority of state officers to enforce federal law, regardless of its reason for doing so.

But Chief U.S. Circuit Judge Steven Colloton, writing for Monday's panel, said just because the state could withhold assistance to federal law enforcement "does not mean that the State may do so by purporting to invalidate federal law."

The panel included two appointees of Republican presidents, including Colloton, and one Democratic appointee. Both the 8th Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court had previously declined to revive the law while the litigation played out.

"We are reviewing the decision," Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, a Republican, said in a statement. "I will always fight for Missourians' Second Amendment rights."

The Justice Department declined to comment.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Rod Nickel)

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