Yesterday, a federal court ruled that New Mexico’s mandatory 7-day waiting period for firearm purchases violates the Second Amendment. In 2024, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signed House Bill 129, requiring most firearm buyers to wait seven days before taking possession of a firearm, even after passing a background check. That same day, New Mexico residents Paul Ortega and Rebecca Scott attempted to purchase firearms. Both quickly passed their background checks but were still required to wait seven days, so they sued Governor Lujan Grisham and Attorney General Raúl Torrez and asked a federal court to stop enforcement of the law. In July 2024, U.S. District Judge James Browning refused their initial request, allowing the law to remain in effect while the case continued. Ortega and Scott appealed to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, the higher federal court over New Mexico. In August 2025, the Tenth Circuit reversed Browning’s decision. The court found that the Second Amendment protects the right to acquire firearms and that New Mexico failed to show a historical tradition supporting a mandatory 7-day waiting period for someone who has already passed a background check. Attorneys defending the New Mexico state government asked the full Tenth Circuit to reconsider that decision, but in December 2025, the court refused. That sent the case back to Judge Browning, who was now required to follow the Tenth Circuit’s ruling. In February 2026, he temporarily blocked the state from enforcing the waiting period against Ortega and Scott, but ONLY Ortega and Scott, while the case continued. Both sides then asked Browning to decide the case without a trial. Yesterday, August 27, 2026, he did just that. Browning ruled that New Mexico cannot enforce the 7-day waiting period against Ortega and Scott and entered final judgment in the case. But the ruling does not yet stop New Mexico from enforcing the law against everyone else. Because Ortega and Scott sued as individual plaintiffs, the final order currently protects only them. New Mexico’s 7-day waiting period remains in effect for other firearm buyers. So what happens next? Governor Lujan Grisham’s office says it is almost certain the state will appeal. An appeal would send the case back to the Tenth Circuit, the same court that already ruled against New Mexico on the central Second Amendment issue and later refused the state’s request to reconsider that ruling. That makes reversing the central constitutional decision an uphill battle for the state. The big question everyone is asking now is what it will take to extend this beyond Ortega and Scott and stop New Mexico from enforcing the waiting period against everyone else. While the injunction protects only Ortega and Scott, the Tenth Circuit’s ruling is now binding precedent in New Mexico. If the state government continues enforcing the waiting period against other buyers or dealers, it will undoubtedly create new lawsuits over a constitutional issue it has already lost. There are a few ways this could ultimately lead to broader relief: • More gun buyers, dealers or gun-rights organizations could sue, using Ortega as binding precedent and seeking protection for themselves or their members. • A class action could be filed on behalf of affected New Mexico gun buyers, potentially protecting a much larger group at once. • The New Mexico Legislature could repeal the law altogether. Continued litigation over a law the state has already lost at the Tenth Circuit could increase pressure to simply remove it. • The U.S. Supreme Court could settle the larger question nationwide. Gun owners challenging Maine’s 72-hour waiting period asked SCOTUS just this week to hear their case after the First Circuit upheld Maine’s law. The Maine case is highly relevant to New Mexico because it created a split circuit decision, which SCOTUS is more compelled to hear. There are some initial deadlines on that case, but it could be be scheduled for a private conference as early as October, where at least four justices would have to vote to hear it. If SCOTUS takes the case, we could ultimately get a nationwide answer on whether states can force an approved firearm buyer to wait before taking possession. This is also all particularly relevant to Colorado. Just three days before the New Mexico ruling, U.S. District Judge John Kane heard arguments in Rocky Mountain Gun Owners and Alicia Garcia v. Jared Polis, challenging Colorado’s mandatory 3-day waiting period. Colorado is also under the Tenth Circuit, meaning the same precedent that Judge Browning was required to follow in New Mexico must now be considered by Kane as he decides the Colorado case. Judge Kane has not yet ruled. Stay tuned for more updates.