Supreme Court declines to weigh gun ban on young adults in Minnesota
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from Minnesota seeking the revival of the state's ban on gun-carry permits for young adults. The justices said they would not consider whether the state's law barring 18-to-20-year-olds from obtaining permits to carry firearms in public violates the Second Amendment, leaving intact a lower court's ruling that...
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from Minnesota seeking the revival of the state's ban on gun-carry permits for young adults.
The justices said they would not consider whether the state's law barring 18-to-20-year-olds from obtaining permits to carry firearms in public violates the Second Amendment, leaving intact a lower court's ruling that determined it does.
The high court, however, also left in place a ban on guns at the University of Michigan by rejecting a separate appeal from a man who claimed it is his right to be armed on campus.
Neither case noted dissents from any justices, signaling an unwillingness to wade any further into constitutional gun rights, for now.
Minnesota's law, which was enacted in 2003, was struck down by a federal judge in 2023 and again by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit the following year. More than 30 states and Washington, D.C., have similar measures.
Both Minnesota and the individuals and gun rights groups that challenged the law sought Supreme Court review because courts around the country have reached different conclusions regarding the lawfulness of limiting young adults' gun rights.
Federal law allows 18-year-olds to buy shotguns, rifles and ammunition for those weapons, but people must be at least 21 years old to purchase other firearms and their ammunition.
In the Michigan case, the justices declined to further narrow the "sensitive places" where guns can be banned, leaving in place a state court ruling that the University of Michigan's policy does not run afoul of the Constitution.
The Supreme Court has been reluctant to weigh in on Second Amendment rights since its 2022 expansion of gun rights in NYSRPA v. Bruen, which held that gun laws must be consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.
Last year, the justices upheld a federal law disarming people under domestic violence restraining orders after they found it complies with the court’s decision in Bruen.
