The next big Second Amendment case may concern teenagers. Appeals courts are split on whether the government may restrict 18- to 20-year-olds from buying or carrying guns, and the Supreme Court will consider next week whether to hear one of those cases.
You might expect the differing views on the lower courts to divide along predictable lines, with judges appointed by Republicans on one side and those appointed by Democrats on the other. But this is an issue that has created a rift among conservative judges committed to unearthing the original meaning of the Constitution.
Last month, for instance, Judge William H. Pryor Jr. wrote the majority opinion for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, in Atlanta, in an 8-to-4 decision upholding a Florida law that prohibits the sale of firearms to people under 21.
No one doubts that Judge Pryor is a conservative. He was on President Trump’s short list in 2017 to fill the vacancy created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. The conventional wisdom was that Judge Pryor would face a tough confirmation battle — because he was too far to the right.
“Pryor has done more for the cause than anyone else in the country,” a White House official said at the time. “But the politics are really tough.”
Judge Pryor’s supporters said he would not waver or evolve. “He has a real titanium spine in terms of doing the right thing,” an official of the Heritage Foundation, the conservative group, said of the judge in 2017.
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