Article Info
Coalition Presses SCOTUS On Reciprocity
| Scope | |
|---|---|
| Jurisdiction | Federal |
| Impact | national |
| Key Entities | |
| Plaintiff, over-the-road truck driver challenging Minnesota's permit law | Jeffrey Johnson |
| Filed amicus brief through counsel Kostas Moros | Second Amendment Foundation |
| Amicus coalition member | National Rifle Association |
| Defendant enforcing non-recognition of out-of-state permits | State of Minnesota |
| Deciding whether to grant certiorari | Supreme Court of the United States |
| Legal Issues | |
| |
| What It Means | |
| |
| Timeline | |
| September 28, 2026 | Supreme Court's first conference of the new term where Johnson v. Jacobson could be discussed |
| Related Laws | |
Coalition Presses SCOTUS On Reciprocity
Five gun rights groups want the justices to decide whether your carry permit stops working at the state line.
From The Boise Gun Club Handbook
A trucker with valid carry permits from two states still can't legally carry his gun in Minnesota — and five Second Amendment organizations just told the Supreme Court that's a constitutional problem worth fixing.
State of play: The case is Johnson v. Jacobson. Jeffrey Johnson drives long-haul routes and holds concealed carry permits from Florida and Georgia. Minnesota doesn't care. It won't recognize either one, forcing him to fly in, appear in person at a sheriff's office, pay fresh fees, and sit through another training course just to carry the same gun he's already licensed to carry at home.
The NRA, California Rifle and Pistol Association, Second Amendment Law Center, Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, and Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms filed an amicus brief backing his challenge. Kostas Moros of the Second Amendment Foundation, counsel of record on the brief, wrote it.
The legal argument: Moros leans on history, not just policy. Founding-era and Reconstruction-era states routinely gave travelers more room to carry than they gave residents — the opposite of what Minnesota's permit scheme does now.
"A truck driver who already holds permits from Florida and Georgia should not have to fly to Minnesota, appear in person at a sheriff's office, pay another set of fees and complete another training course just to exercise the same constitutional right he already has," Moros wrote. "Minnesota's scheme turns that tradition on its head."
Zoom out: Nobody's getting a clean 50-state carry permit out of this even in a best-case scenario. Oregon, for instance, only recognizes permits from states it shares a border with and won't issue permits to non-residents at all. Stitching together nationwide carry rights currently means thousands of dollars and multiple out-of-state trips — a burden that doesn't attach to any other constitutional right.
Yes, but: The Court has already passed on similar reciprocity cases, and so far no justice has even asked Minnesota to respond to this petition. That silence is not encouraging. Without a requested response, the justices have less pressure and less material to work with heading into conference.
What to watch: The Court's first conference of the new term lands September 28. If a justice calls for a response from Minnesota before then, it buys the case more time and signals real interest — cert decisions won't come until that reply is filed. Without that signal, Johnson likely gets denied along with the earlier reciprocity petitions.
The bottom line: Johnson is the kind of case Second Amendment lawyers see as the natural next step after Bruen — testing whether a right that stops working the moment you cross a state line is really being treated as a right at all. Whether the Court agrees is still very much up in the air.
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