A federal judge in Kansas City ruled that the Second Amendment Preservation Act in Missouri did not pass constitutional muster. The law allowed citizens to sue Missouri police if they believed their rights to guns were violated by the enforcement of federal regulations.

A federal judge struck down a controversial law Tuesday that would penalize Missouri police for enforcing federal gun laws.

U.S. District Judge Brian C. Wimes ruled Missouri’s Second Amendment Preservation Act (SAPA) unconstitutional and said it violated the standard that federal law trumps state law.

The Missouri statute is an “unconstitutional (violation of) federal law and is designed to be just that,” Wimes wrote.

The law allowed citizens to file suit for up to $50,000 if they believed that enforcement of federal gun laws violated their Second Amendment rights to keep and bear arms.

“SAPA exposes citizens to greater harm by interfering with the Federal Government’s ability to enforce lawfully enacted firearm regulations designed by Congress for the purpose of protecting citizens with the limits of the Constitution," Wimes wrote in his 24-page opinion.

The U.S. Justice Department originally filed suit a year ago to prevent Missouri from enforcing the law passed by the Republican-controlled General Assembly and signed by Gov. Mike Parson.

The Justice Department complained that Missouri’s law hindered cooperation between federal, state and local law enforcement. In a statement, the department cited local police agencies leaving joint federal task forces as an example of the fallout from the law’s passage.

Former Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt had called the Justice Department’s lawsuit “partisan” and said President Joe Biden’s administration put “politics ahead of public safety” by filing the challenge to the state law.

“The Biden Department of Justice has now filed yet another partisan lawsuit that seeks to attack Missourians’ Second Amendment rights,” Schmitt said.

In a statement, current Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey said his office plans to appeal the decision and is prepared to defend the preservation act at the highest court, anticipating a better result in the Eighth Circuit than it got from the U.S. District of Western Missouri on Tuesday.

“The Second Amendment is what makes the rest of the amendments possible. If the state legislature wants to expand upon the foundational rights codified in the Second Amendment, they have the authority to do that,” Bailey said in a statement. “But SAPA is also about the Tenth Amendment (that leaves some powers to the states). It’s about federalism and individual liberty.”

In a statement, Parson said his office supports the attorney general’s office plan to appeal the ruling.

https://www.kcur.org/news/2023...ats-unconstitutional

Meanwhile sanctuary states and cities that ignore federal immigration laws seem to be no problem.

A few years ago the city of Tucson passed their own gun law despite a warning letter from the Arizona Attorney General advising City Council against it. Arizona state politicians make gun law.

The state courts stepped in and filed against Tucson with close to a million bucks in fines and all court costs.

Of course, City taxpayers footed the bill.