The Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has denied a petition for a rehearing in a Second Amendment Foundation case which found Minnesota’s ban on carry permits for young adults ages 18-20 is unconstitutional.

The case is known as Worth v. Harrington, and it was filed in June 2021. Joining SAF in this case are the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, Firearms Policy Coalition, and three private citizens, Austin Dye, Axel Anderson, and Kristin Worth, for whom the case is known. They are represented by attorneys Blair W. Nelson of Bemidji, Minn., and David H. Thompson, Peter A. Patterson, and William V. Bergstrom at Cooper & Kirk in Washington, D.C.

In its order, the Eighth Circuit also denied a request for an en banc panel hearing. In March 2023, U.S. District Court Judge Katherine Menendez, a 2021 Joe Biden appointee, ruled that Minnesota’s permitting age restriction is unconstitutional. The case was appealed to the Eighth Circuit, which upheld Judge Menendez’s decision.

“Clearly, Judge Menendez made the right call in the first place,” said SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut. “As we contended all along, the right of the people mentioned in the Second Amendment was not limited to those over a certain age. Certainly young adults fall within the definition of ‘the people’ ever since they’ve been allowed to vote, and generations before that when they were considered part of the militia, and have been accepted into the military.”

“We expected to prevail at trial and again at the appeals court level,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “We are gratified by the Eight Circuit’s decision, and now we will see whether Minnesota submits a petition for certiorari to the Supreme Court. For the time being, we have notched another victory in our ongoing effort to win firearms freedom one lawsuit at a time.”

Second Amendment Foundation

The Second Amendment Foundation (saf.org) is the nation’s oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 720,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control.