Beckwith v. Frey
Split Score
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Case Summary
Disposition
Vacated
The First Circuit vacated a preliminary injunction that had barred Maine’s Attorney General from enforcing a 72-hour firearm waiting-period statute. Applying the first step of the Bruen framework, the court held that the law regulates only the timing of acquisition, conduct not covered by the Second Amendment’s plain text, and therefore is likely constitutional; the case is remanded for further proceedings.
Circuit Split Identified
Legal Issue
Whether waiting-period statutes (and similar purchase-related conditions) regulate conduct covered by the Second Amendment’s plain text so that the government must supply a historical analogue under N.Y. State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen, or whether they are merely presumptively lawful conditions on the commercial sale of firearms that can be upheld at Bruen step one.
Circuit Positions
Waiting-period / purchase-condition laws regulate conduct outside the Second Amendment’s plain text; analysis ends at Bruen step one and the laws are presumptively lawful unless shown abusive.
Waiting-period / purchase-condition laws implicate the Second Amendment right; courts must proceed to Bruen step two and, absent a historical analogue, such laws are unconstitutional.
Conflict Summary
Some circuits treat waiting-period and purchase-condition laws as burdening only ancillary conduct and therefore uphold them at Bruen step one as presumptively lawful. Other circuits hold that such statutes implicate the Second Amendment’s core protection, proceed to Bruen step two, and have invalidated the laws for lack of an adequate historical analogue.