The Minnesota Supreme Court created doubt Wednesday over the viability of a decades-old state law that makes it a crime to possess certain firearms that lack serial numbers. In overturning a lower court ruling, a majority of justices on the state’s highest court stopped short of invalidating a 1994 law entirely on constitutional grounds. But the split ruling could make it harder for prosecutors to bring the gun charges as they have in hundreds of cases per year.

New security measures went into place Wednesday at the Minnesota Capitol in St. Paul.

Former Minnesota Sen. Justin Eichorn appeared in court Wednesday. He faces charges of soliciting a minor for sex, after being arrested in March in a Bloomington sting operation.

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