Twenty-Five States Just Told SCOTUS Maine’s 72-Hour Wait Is the Test

The brief is dated September 28, 2026, in the Supreme Court of the United States, No. 26-258. Caption: Andrea Beckwith, et al., Petitioners, v. Aaron M. Frey, individually and as Attorney General of Maine, Respondent. On petition for a writ of certiorari to the First Circuit. Title on the cover: Brief of Montana and 24 States as Amici Curiae in Support of Petitioners. Counsel of record: Christian B. Corrigan, Solicitor General, Montana Department of Justice, Helena. Austin Knudsen, Attorney General of Montana, signs first. Cam Edwards at Bearing Arms, September 29: Frey waived a reply last week; the Court can still demand one.

The amici states named on the interest page and the signature block: Montana, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wyoming, plus the Arizona Legislature (House Speaker Steve Montenegro and Senate President Warren Petersen). That is 24 states and Arizona’s legislature, 25 governments in the caption. Maine’s wait is Me. Rev. Stat. Ann. tit. 25, § 2016(2). The brief: “Waiting period after sale of firearm,” which “prohibits a seller from delivering a firearm to a buyer for 72 hours.” Thirteen states and D.C., the brief says, now impose some form of waiting period.

The holding they want reversed is the First Circuit’s text dodge. Quote from the brief: placing a cooling-off law “outside the full protection of the Second Amendment will fundamentally weaken ‘the right of law-abiding, responsible citizens’ to keep and bear arms.” Forced delay on taking possession is “a[] restriction[]” on possession. The Tenth Circuit, they note, struck New Mexico’s week-long wait in Ortega v. Grisham, 148 F.4th 1134 (10th Cir. 2025). The ask is a grant, then a step-two holding that Maine produced no Founding-era analogue. The district court, the brief says, found “no readily comparable precedent before … [t]he late Twentieth Century.” Last week’s SAF/NRA amicus is still on the docket. This filing is the states. It is not a certiorari grant.