A Missouri law that declares certain federal gun restrictions invalid is unconstitutional, a U.S. appeals court ruled Monday — the second time a federal court has struck down the sweeping state measure.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in a written opinion found that the law — the Second Amendment Preservation Act, or SAPA — purported to invalidate federal law in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s supremacy clause, which ensures federal law trumps state law.
“A State cannot invalidate federal law to itself,” 8th Circuit Chief Judge Steven Colloton, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, wrote in the ruling.
The ruling is a blow to Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey and other Missouri Republicans who have defended the law since Gov. Mike Parson signed it into law in 2021. Bailey, who will appear 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.
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Bailey said in a statement that his office was reviewing the decision.
“I will always fight for Missourians’ Second Amendment rights,” he said.
U.S. Rep. Eric Burlison, who as a state lawmaker sponsored SAPA, said he was “disappointed” by the court ruling and “grateful” for Bailey’s efforts to defend the law.
“The State of Missouri, not the federal government, should determine how it spends Missouri taxpayer dollars,” the Springfield Republican said. “Missouri taxpayers should not be forced to fund the Biden-Harris administration’s radical gun control policies.”
The U.S. Justice Department, which filed the lawsuit against Missouri, declined to comment.
The Missouri law forbade police from enforcing federal gun laws that don’t have an equivalent state law. Law enforcement agencies with officers who knowingly enforced federal gun laws without equivalent state laws faced a fine of $50,000 per violating officer.
Federal laws without similar Missouri laws include statutes covering weapons registration and tracking, and possession of firearms by some domestic violence offenders.
Missouri’s law has been on hold since 2023, when the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily blocked it as the legal challenge played out in lower courts.
Conflict over Missouri’s law wrecked a crime-fighting partnership with U.S. attorneys that Missouri’s former Republican attorney general — Eric Schmitt, now a U.S. senator — touted for years. Under Schmitt’s Safer Streets Initiative, attorneys from his office were deputized as assistant U.S. attorneys to help prosecute violent crimes.
The Justice Department had said the Missouri state crime lab, operated by the Missouri State Highway Patrol, refused to process evidence that would help federal firearms prosecutions after the law took effect.
Republican lawmakers who helped pass the bill said they were motivated by the potential for new gun restrictions under Democratic President Joe Biden, who had signed the most sweeping gun violence bill in decades.
The federal legislation toughened background checks for the youngest gun buyers, keeps firearms from more domestic violence offenders, and helps states put in place red flag laws that make it easier for authorities to take weapons from people judged to be dangerous.
“Missouri has many challenges,” Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said in a statement. “I hope the Attorney General and other state leaders actually address crime issues to make us safer, rather than undermining efforts of federal agents and local police officers who work each day to keep us safe from gun violence.”
Includes reporting by the Kansas City Star and The Associated Press.