A U.S. appeals court ruled Monday that a Missouri law invalidating certain federal gun restrictions was unconstitutional, marking the second time a federal court has struck down the state's sweeping measure.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit found in a written opinion that the law (Second Amendment Preservation Act, SAPA) allegedly overrides federal law, violating the Constitution's precedence rule, which ensures that federal law prevails over state law.
The ruling is a blow to Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey and other Republicans who have defended the law since Gov. Mike Parson signed it into law in 2021. Bailey, who will be on the November ballot and has positioned himself as a staunch supporter of the Second Amendment, could ask the full appeals court to hear the case or seek review by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The federal gun laws invalidated by SAPA include provisions for gun registration and tracking, as well as gun ownership by some perpetrators of domestic violence. Under the law, state and local police are prohibited from assisting federal officers in enforcing the “invalidated” laws or hiring former federal officers who enforced those laws.
Under the law, police departments can face $50,000 lawsuits from private citizens who believe their Second Amendment rights have been violated, but enforcement of the law has been suspended as a challenge to the measure moves through the courts.
“The fact that Missouri can lawfully refuse to assist federal authorities does not mean, however, that the state can do so under the pretext of evading federal law,” Chief Judge Steven Colloton, a judge appointed by former President George W. Bush, wrote in the court's decision.
If Missouri wants to stop supporting enforcement of current federal gun laws, Colloton wrote, “it can do so in other lawful ways and accept political responsibility for that decision.”
U.S. District Judge Brian Wimes declared the law unconstitutional in March 2023, but Missouri appealed.
Monday's decision came as part of a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice against Missouri, which said the law had disrupted longstanding working groups and information sharing between states and the federal government.
In at least one case, a Missouri State Highway Patrol officer released a federal fugitive. The Justice Department said in a court document that a highway patrol officer released the fugitive in September 2021 to avoid risking the state agency's liability.
“Missouri faces many challenges,” Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said in a statement. “I hope the attorney general and other state leaders will actually address the crime issues to make us safer, rather than undermining the efforts of federal officials and local police officers who work every day to protect us from gun violence.”
Bailey's office did not initially comment on the decision. He posted on social media: “I will always fight for the rights Missourians are entitled to under the Second Amendment to the Constitution.”
Kacen Bayless of the Star contributed to the reporting
