Supreme Court Lets Maine Waiting-Period Law Stand in Beckwith v. Frey

The Supreme Court declined on October 19, 2026 to hear Beckwith v. Frey, leaving Maine's 72-hour firearm waiting period in place without ever ruling on whether it's constitutional.

Key points

• What was denied: The Court's order list rejected cert petition No. 26-258 with no explanation or dissent, letting a First Circuit ruling stand.
• Who brought the case: Firearms instructor Andrea Beckwith of East Coast School of Safety, along with individual buyers and gun businesses, challenged the law after passing background checks.
• What the First Circuit said: On April 3, that court vacated a preliminary injunction against the law, reasoning Maine's rule regulates delivery timing on a sale rather than possession or carry itself.
• How the law works: Under Maine Title 25, section 2016, sellers generally can't hand over a firearm until 72 hours after the purchase agreement, a clock that runs alongside any background-check wait rather than stacking on top of it.
• What didn't happen: The denial doesn't uphold the law's constitutionality, doesn't set a nationwide rule on waiting periods, and doesn't touch the statute's existing exceptions.

Quick take

This is a procedural non-decision dressed up as news, but it matters anyway. A buyer who's already cleared a background check still has to wait on Maine's say-so, and the one court that looked hard at that question sided with the state at the preliminary-injunction stage. The Supreme Court's silence means that reasoning survives for now, and gun owners in other states watching the waiting-period fight should expect this case to keep moving before anyone gets a final answer.

Read the full story: concealednation.org