When Jeffrey Johnson Sr., a long-haul truck driver from Georgia, reaches the Minnesota state line, he has to stop being an armed man. He must unload his handgun and lock it away in a closed case before he drives on, even though he holds valid carry permits from both Georgia and Florida. The Supreme Court has turned away his challenge to that rule, so it stays in place for him and for anyone else whose permit Minnesota does not accept.
Story Snapshot
- On Monday, October 5, the Supreme Court declined to hear Johnson v. Jacobson. The justices gave no reason.
- When the Court declines a case, the lower court’s ruling stands. Here that ruling favors Minnesota.
- Minnesota does not honor Georgia or Florida permits because it says those states’ licensing rules are not similar enough to its own.
- A driver with a permit Minnesota does not accept must keep a handgun unloaded and cased, or get a Minnesota permit first.
Why Minnesota Turns His Permits Away
Minnesota bars anyone from carrying a pistol in public without a permit. It accepts a permit from another state only when that state’s licensing requirements are similar to Minnesota’s. This is called reciprocity, which means one state honoring another state’s permit. According to reports, Minnesota honors permits from 33 states. Georgia and Florida are not on the list. In court, the state argued that the rule keeps its safety standards from being sidestepped, and that it does not ban visitors from carrying. It asks them to meet the same bar as residents.
For Johnson, that bar is hard to reach from a truck cab. His lawyers say a Minnesota permit must be applied for in person at a county sheriff’s office, costs up to $100, can take up to 30 days and is mailed to a home address. They say his routes change with little notice, so he often does not know when a load will take him into the state. He makes several trips into or through Minnesota each year.
What The Court Left In Place
Johnson sued in January 2025 with help from the Liberty Justice Center, a nonprofit law group. The case is named for Bob Jacobson, Minnesota’s commissioner of public safety, whose department runs the permit system. A federal trial judge dismissed the suit in September 2025. In May 2026 the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, the federal court one step below the Supreme Court that covers Minnesota and six other states, agreed.
The appeals judges wrote that “Minnesota’s reciprocity statute, standing alone, does not regulate arms-bearing conduct.” In their view, the law only spares some visitors from the permit process. It does not take a right away from the rest, because they can still apply for a Minnesota permit. Johnson’s petition, filed August 24, described the result this way: “An individual’s Second Amendment rights are confined to the borders of the state where he holds a firearm permit.”
The Supreme Court’s refusal is not a ruling that Minnesota is right. The justices did not weigh in on the Second Amendment question at all. They chose not to take it up, and the appeals court’s decision remains the law in the states it covers.
What It Means If You Carry Across State Lines
In 2022, in a case called New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, the Supreme Court said the Second Amendment protects carrying a handgun in public for self-defense. That ruling did not say one state must honor another state’s permit. Each state still decides that for itself, and Monday’s order leaves that system as it was.
So the lesson of Johnson’s stop at the Minnesota line applies to every permit holder on a road trip. A permit that is good at home may not be good one state over. Check each state on the route before leaving, and learn how that state wants a handgun stored when a permit is not accepted. A change to the rule would have to come from Congress, where a bill to make every state honor other states’ permits, H.R. 38, cleared a House committee in March 2025, or from a later case the justices agree to hear.
Sources:
wnd.com, caselaw.findlaw.com, biazzolaw.com, x.com
