The Biden Administration argued that 18-20 years old are not part of “the people” protected under the Second Amendment. It argued that the “age of majority” was 21 at the founding and that the Framers did not intend to protect the rights of citizens below the age of 21 for the purposes of gun purchases.

It is an argument with sweeping implications. If the Second Amendment does not protect those under 21, what about other rights like those under the First Amendment?

Moreover, when age was a key exclusion, the Framers would state so, including the right to hold office.

[It was a stupid, desperate argument from the start. The Fifth Amendment doesn’t start applying at 21 for obvious reasons. Neither do the several protections of rights in the First Amendment, equally obviously. Thanks to the perhaps ill-considered 26th Amendment in 1971 setting the age for full participation in citizenship at 18, the Constitution itself recognizes majority at 18 and full grant of rights at that age. It didn’t take a con-law professor to figure that out, although Turley is on hand to remind Biden et al just how stupid this argument was. — Ed]