Also known as: Brady Acts · Brady Bill · Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A federal statute establishing a national instant background-check system for prospective handgun purchasers. The statute's interim provisions directing state and local law enforcement officers to perform those checks were invalidated under the Tenth Amendment.
Brittany Bell, a county sheriff, receives a federal directive requiring her office to run background checks on every handgun buyer using state resources and personnel until a national database becomes operational. When a dealer challenges the mandate after Bell refuses to comply without federal funding, the court holds that the directive commandeers state officers to administer a federal program.
Brian Bailey, the director of a state motor vehicle agency, objects to a federal statute that restricts how his office may sell or disclose drivers' personal data to third parties. The court upholds the statute because it regulates the state's own conduct as a data holder rather than ordering state officers to enforce a federal regulatory scheme against private parties.
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The Court struck down the interim requirement that state and local chief law enforcement officers conduct background checks on prospective handgun purchasers. That mandate was held to violate the anti-commandeering principle derived from the Tenth Amendment.
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No. After the Supreme Court decision, the interim state-officer provisions were invalidated. The permanent national instant background-check system is now administered by federal authorities without commandeering state personnel.
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The statute's interim provisions directly ordered state officers to execute a federal regulatory program by conducting background checks. The Court used those provisions to establish that Congress may not conscript state executive officials to administer federal law.
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…to carry out federal regulatory programs. Today we hold that this prohibition applies equally to state judicial officials. The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (Brady Act or Act), 18 U. S. C. § 922(g)(8), requires the Attorney General to establish a national instant background check system by November 30, 1998. In the interim, the Act requires…