A Trump-appointed federal judge on Thursday iced Maine's arbitrary new 72-hour waiting period between purchasing and taking possession of a firearm.
The new law, passed without the governor's signature last April, established the mandatory limbo period beyond the time it takes to typically conduct a background check. Backed by Democrats and anti-gun activists, it passed the state legislature by a razor-thin margin, authorizing a fine of up to $1,000 for each violation.
Pro-Second Amendment and firearms trade groups campaigned against the measure and then took the state to court over the waiting period once it became law.
That's where Chief Judge Lance Walker of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine enters the story. He granted a preliminary injunction of the state's waiting period law on Feb. 13. Walker, a longtime Maine District and Superior Court judge appointed to the federal bench in 2018, took exception with Maine's Democratic Attorney General Aaron Frey's argument that the waiting period was in line with the Second Amendment.
"Though Frey concedes that the Constitution makes inviolate a right to keep and bear arms, he asserts that it does not protect the corollary right to acquire arms, which is a curious construction indeed," said Walker in his 17-page opinion. "It is an interpretation that is not only unsupported by the text of the Constitution but one that makes the core right to keep and bear arms illusory if it is relegated to those arms in circulation at the time of the founding or through sales not subject to a background check."
Walker later summed it up by saying, "Because the act of acquiring a firearm, including by purchase, falls within the ambit of what it means to keep and bear arms, it is presumptively protected by the Second Amendment."
Citing a high likelihood of the case succeeding on its merits, Walker placed the waiting period on hold until the challenge against the law is resolved in court.
The case was brought by several individuals, FFLs, and an organization that provides firearm training, and is supported by the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
"This decision by the court is an affirmation that unconstitutional delays on the free exercise of rights are not in compliance with Second Amendment rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution,” said Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF Senior Vice President and General Counsel, in an email to Guns.com. "Rights delayed are rights denied. The decision to enjoin this law while it is challenged in court ensures that law-abiding Mainers are not encumbered and deprived of their rights to keep and bear arms after they have proven they are not prohibited from legally possessing a firearm."
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