Published September 29, 2026 at 9:00 AM ET · Updated September 29, 2026 at 11:00 AM ET
Gun rights groups ask Supreme Court to review Maine's 3-day waiting period
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Gun rights groups have asked the Supreme Court to review Maine's three-day waiting period for gun purchases. The request asks the justices to take up the state's waiting period law.
Patriot Watch first flagged this story 1 d ago, when The Truth About Guns reported it. So far this remains a single-source report. The most recent report came 1 d ago from The Truth About Guns.
⚖ The Constitutional Angle
Heller recognized an individual right to possess firearms for self-defense but called longstanding conditions on commercial sale presumptively lawful, Maine's best ground. Bruen held that when the amendment's text covers conduct, the government must justify the rule by the Nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation. The petition turns on whether waiting periods fit that tradition, not on reasonableness.
District of Columbia v. Heller 554 U.S. 570 (2008)
Vote: 5-4 · Opinion: Scalia
The Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia and to use it for traditionally lawful purposes such as self-defense within the home. The right is not unlimited: the Court noted that longstanding prohibitions (e.g., possession by felons and the mentally ill, carrying in sensitive places, conditions on commercial sale) remain presumptively lawful. D.C.'s ban on handgun possession in the home and its requirement that lawful firearms in the home be kept nonfunctional violate the Second Amendment.
New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Kevin P. Bruen, Superintendent of New York State Police 597 U.S. 1 (2022)
Vote: 6-3 · Opinion: Thomas
New York's requirement that applicants demonstrate 'proper cause' — a special need for self-protection distinguishable from the general community — to obtain an unrestricted public-carry license violates the Fourteenth Amendment by preventing law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defense needs from exercising their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms in public. The Court held the Second Amendment protects a right to carry handguns publicly for self-defense, and rejected the two-step means-end framework lower courts had applied after Heller.
Precedent facts from the PW Law Library — primary-source verified & independently audited
