Maine Legal Update: First Circuit Court of Appeals Upholds Maine’s 72-Hour Waiting Period Law

On Friday, April 3, 2026, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit reversed the Maine District Court preliminary injunction in Beckwith v. Frey which has been holding the enforcement of Maine’s 72-hour waiting period law at bay since the law was originally passed. With the preliminary injunction reversed, Maine’s 72-hour waiting period law would take effect on April 24^th, without further intervention by either an en banc review of the panel decision or the Supreme Court of the United States.

The opinion accompanying the order is perhaps the most bizarrely reasoned decision in recent memory in the area of Second Amendment jurisprudence. The framework prescribed under the landmark Supreme Court cases of NYSRPA v. Bruen and D.C. v. Heller establishes a two-step test when evaluating modern firearms regulations: the court must ask 1) is the conduct in question covered by the plain text of the Second Amendment, and 2) if so, is the modern gun control regulation consistent with the nation’s history and tradition of firearms regulation at the time of the founding, with the burden of establishing historical pedigree falling on the state, a generally high hurdle for states’ attorneys general to clear.

In Beckwith, as the Maine Attorney General could proffer no clear evidence of a historical tradition supporting a mandatory waiting period, the three-judge panel of Biden and Obama appointees simply concludes that the plaintiff’s argument fails at step 1. In a form of mind-bending judicial activism, the court finds that a law imposing lengthy waiting periods on the delivery of firearms is conduct that is simply not covered by the plain text of the Second Amendment at all, and therefore, there is no need to proceed to step 2.

NRA is an amicus party in Beckwith. Maine lawmakers have been blocking debate on a repeal bill on this issue the entire session. It will likely take time for the plaintiffs in Beckwith to evaluate their strategy on appealing this decision but, if the current order is left to stand, the preliminary injunction on Maine’s 72-hour waiting period law will end on April 24^th and the law will go into effect.

NRA-ILA will continue to monitor developments in this case and the impact on Maine gun owners if and when the law goes into effect.