On Monday, a federal appeals court sided with the United States and affirmed a lower court’s order invalidating a Missouri law that conflicted with federal gun laws.
A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit agreed that the law, which purported to invalidate federal gun laws, violated the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause.
“A State cannot invalidate federal law to itself,” stated 8th Circuit Chief Judge Steven Colloton.
The Supremacy Clause provides that federal law is “the supreme Law of the Land . . . any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.”
The 2021 law purported to nullify federal laws as “infringements on the people’s right to keep and bear arms, as guaranteed by Amendment II of the Constitution of the United States and Article I, Section 23 of the Constitution of Missouri.”
“Any political subdivision or law enforcement agency” violating the Missouri law was subject to a $50,000 penalty and liable for attorney’s fees and costs. The law empowered private citizens to enforce it by creating a private cause of action.
Under Missouri law, federal laws deemed infringements were “invalid” in Missouri and “shall not be recognized by this state” and “shall be specifically rejected by this state.”
The Missouri law protected “firearms, firearm accessories, or ammunition” with respect to law-abiding citizens.
The state invalidated any federal gun laws targeting those three items if they required registries, tracking of the items, registries, or ownership tracking.
Missouri law nullified federal gun laws that banned “the possession, ownership, use, or transfer of” guns or allowed their confiscation.
Federal taxes “not common to all other goods and services and that might reasonably be expected to create a chilling effect on the purchase or ownership of those items” were also invalid under the Missouri Law.
In 2022, the United States sued Missouri to block the law. The United States argued Missouri’s law would interfere with state-federal law enforcement cooperation by forcing state law enforcement to withdraw from joint task forces.
Missouri attorney General Andrew Bailey promised to “always fight for Missourians’ Second Amendment rights.”
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY