Bob Jacobson, Individually and in His Official Capacity as Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety v. Kristin Worth, et al.

Minnesota allows young people significant access to firearms. Young people can use guns under the supervision of an adult at any age, and they can use them without supervision on their property or for hunting beginning at age 14. Yet Respondents insist that Minnesota burdens their Second Amendment rights when it restricts permits for carrying pistols in public to those aged 21 and older. The federal government and a majority of states have enacted similar restrictions. Applying Bruen in a manner that this Court disavowed in Rahimi, the lower courts concluded that Minnesota’s law was unconstitutional as applied to 18-to-20-yearolds. The district court found the absence of analogous restrictions from the Founding era determinative. Issued just three weeks after Rahimi—but without the benefit of any briefing regarding the impact of Rahimi—the Eighth Circuit committed the same error. It focused its historical analysis exclusively on a search for an elusive historical twin rather than focusing on historical principles. The question presented is: Does Minnesota’s statute limiting permits for public carry of pistols to those 21 and older comport with the principles underlying the Second Amendment?