(Credit: Fred Schilling, Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States)
By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
In a decision with far-reaching implications, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review the State of Minnesota’s appeal of an Eighth Circuit Court ruling striking down the state’s ban on young adults applying for concealed carry permits.
The case is known as Jacobson v. Worth, which evolved from the original Worth v. Harrington, filed in June 2021 by the Second Amendment Foundation, Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, Firearms Policy Coalition, and three private citizens, Kristin Worth, for whom the case is named, Austin Dye, and Axel Anderson. They are represented by attorneys David H. Thompson, Peter A. Patterson, John D. Ohlendorf and William V. Bergstrom at Cooper & Kirk in Washington, D.C.
In a statement from SAF, the organization explained how it had won an injunction at the district court level, which was upheld by the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The state then appealed to the high court, seeking certiorari.
According to NBC News, the court’s denial “delivered a blow to Minnesota’s attempt to prevent young adults from obtaining permits to carry firearms in public.”
NBC also observed, “Although the court did not issue a ruling in the case, it sends a signal that similar laws, including one at the federal level, could be under threat in the future.”
In a prepared statement, SAF Director of Legal Operations Bill Sack observed, “We are encouraged with today’s ruling, that the Supreme Court was happy to let the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision that 18-20-year-olds are part of ‘the People’ who have the right to carry a handgun for self-defense, stand. This ruling will have reverberations nationwide, where SAF is involved in multiple similar suits, seeking to restore the rights of young adults who face similarly unconstitutional laws in their home states.”
“Today’s cert denial confirms what we’ve said all along – the Second Amendment is not limited to those 21-years-old and above,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb. “We are cautiously optimistic the denial will have a positive impact in SAF’s challenges to similar bans in other states. Our goal is to remove any impediments for adults – no matter their age – to exercise their Second Amendment rights wherever they live.”
Monday’s announcement likely will have a ripple effect, depending upon whether Democrat-controlled legislatures take it as a signal they cannot push too far on gun restrictions. Already in other states there is movement to fully enfranchise young adults with constitutional rights recognition, including the Second Amendment.
As explained by SAF’s Gottlieb four years ago when the case was initially filed, “We recognize the rights of law-abiding young adults to vote, join the military, sign contracts, start businesses, get married and do other things, but when it comes to exercising one of the most basic fundamental rights protected by the Constitution, suddenly we treat them like children. You shouldn’t be able to have it both ways.”
The decision not to review the case leaves the ruling only in the Eighth Circuit, at least for the time being.
