The Supreme Court began its 2020 term on Monday, and, interestingly, declined to hear the first case of the term concerning the Second Amendment.
The court refused to hear Zoie H. v. Nebraska, which is a case “that challenged the state’s denial of gun rights without the right to a jury trial,” according to American Military News.
Nebraska’s law bars young adults from owning a firearm until age 25 if they were convicted of certain crimes as juveniles even if they had not received a jury trial.
The law does permit, however, people who had been denied gun rights to ask a court to reinstate them when they turn 19.
The petition to the Supreme Court argued:
“The constitutional problem here is that the state seeks to impose restrictions—indeed, prohibit petitioner from exercising her Second Amendment rights at all—for six years after petitioner becomes an adult. The state insisted on depriving her of her Second Amendment rights well into adulthood via a bench trial.
“If a state deems a juvenile offense sufficiently serious to warrant disenfranchisement well into adulthood, then it must provide the protection that the Constitution guarantees for serious offenses with serious, longterm consequences: the right to a trial by jury.”
It is curious that the Supreme Court chose not to take up the case, since the argument clearly could be made that Nebraska’s law violates both the Second Amendment and Sixth Amendment, the right to bear arms and the right to a jury, respectively.
