New Mexico will ask a federal appeals court to reconsider its pause on the state’s seven-day waiting period to purchase a firearm.
A three-judge panel of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver on Aug. 19 enjoined New Mexico’s seven-day waiting period, which became law in May 2024.
New Mexico intends to file a petition asking for all 19 of the court’s judges to decide the case, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s Communications Director Michael Coleman told Source NM on Monday. Lujan Grisham’s Deputy General Counsel Kyle Duffy told the interim legislative Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee on Monday morning about the state’s intentions to file the petition but due to audio problems with the Legislature’s webcast, Source was unable to hear the presentation.
New Mexico Department of Justice Spokesperson Lauren Rodriguez confirmed to Source on Tuesday that Attorney General Raúl Torrez intends to ask the full court to reconsider the case.
“We are actively working with the Governor’s office on the petition for rehearing,” Rodriguez said in an emailed statement.
Duffy told the committee in the meantime, the waiting-period law remains in effect, Coleman said.
These kinds of requests for an entire federal appeals court to reconsider a smaller panel’s decisions are generally reserved for exceptionally important cases, in which decisions conflict with one another or when the circuit court tries to keep its decisions consistent, according to a presentation to the committee by Brandon Cummings, the district legislative aide to Chair Sen. Joseph Cervantes (D-Las Cruces).
Coleman told Source that Duffy said the panel’s split decision goes against a prior Tenth Circuit ruling that upheld Colorado’s law barring gun purchases by anyone under the age of 21, or “a law that requires 18-year-olds to wait three years to purchase a weapon.” Judge Scott M. Matheson’s dissenting opinion also points to this inconsistency.
As of Tuesday morning, New Mexico had not yet filed the petition for rehearing, according to court records.
