Slate Critique on 5th Circuit 2A Ruling
for Young Adults Raises Questions
By Dave Workman. Feb 3, 2025
OPINION: In the aftermath of a ruling by the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals striking down the federal ban on handgun sales to young adults, Slate published an Op-Ed by an Amherst College professor decrying the court panel's "open invitation" to the Supreme Court "to take another step toward making gun ownership a constitutionally preferred right."
What, exactly, is a "preferred right," and what makes it different from all the other rights protected by the Constitution's Bill of Rights?
Austin Sarat, the author of Slate's OpEd does not explain. Instead, Sarat—identified as "the William Nelson Cromwell professor of jurisprudence and political science and a professor of law, jurisprudence, and social thought at Amherst College"—details what he thinks is wrong with the 5th Circuit decision.
"Following that logic," Sarat writes, "the court ignored the current situation and the reason why, more than five decades ago, Congress banned the sale of handguns, but not other firearms, to people under the age of 21."
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