Supreme Court Faces Critical Test in Hawaii Gun Rights Showdown
Pressure Mounts on Supreme Court to Hear Hawaii Carry Ban Case. Are there 49 U.S. states that are bound to the Constitution and the rule of law–and then Hawaii? Is the 50th free to ignore the Supreme Court and rely instead on its own perceived traditions to govern its citizens?
Even at the expense of the Bill of Rights?
The answer, of course, is a resounding no. Federal law and high court rulings apply across the board and to every single law-abiding American individual. Now, the U.S. Supreme Court has a clear opportunity to right this wrong and protect Second Amendment freedoms for all citizens.
Last week, over half of the state attorneys general implored the high court to take up Wolford v. Lopez. A remarkable 26 AGs filed an amicus brief urging justices to consider the case against Act 52, the state law that virtually banned carrying a weapon.
Act 52 established a broad swath of “sensitive places” where carrying firearms is banned. A district court determined that most of the law was unconstitutional, but Hawaii officials appealed the case to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
This panel overturned the district court decision.
Gun rights supporting AGs, led by Montana’s Austin Knudsen, urged the Supreme Court to take up the case. He declared the 9th Circuit ruling jeopardizes gun rights across the nation.
“The Supreme Court has guaranteed that Americans’ Second Amendment rights are not second-class rights, but the 9th Circuit’s recent decision puts that guarantee in jeopardy,” Knudsen explained. “I hope SCOTUS will take up this case and reverse this flawed decision to protect our right to keep and bear arms. Montanans’ rights do not end at the state’s border, and I will not stand idly by as those rights are put at risk.”
26 State AGs Demand Justice as Hawaii Defies Second Amendment Precedent
Hawaii is an outlier as more and more states step up to protect gun rights. For example, its “default rule” means that instead of citizens having the freedom to carry weapons unless told otherwise by the owner of a business open to the public, the opposite applies.
Advance permission must be granted to carry in these businesses lawfully.
This would not be an issue if Hawaii lawmakers and judges simply followed the law of the land. Instead, the state Supreme Court ruled in a separate case last summer that the Hawaii Constitution does not guarantee the right to keep and bear arms.
Further, the court determined that Hawaii’s “place to keep” laws limiting firearm possession to an individual’s “place of business, residence, or sojourn” passed constitutional muster.
That case surrounded the 2017 detention of Christopher Wilson, who had a firearm in his possession for self-defense. Without the state’s carry permit, he was charged with violating the “place to keep” statutes.
The state circuit court rejected Wilson’s motion to dismiss the charges in 2021, but that was before the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen cemented the general right to carry arms for self-defense away from the home.
The circuit court based its decision largely on Young v. Hawaii, but that ruling was vacated after Bruen and remanded to the Ninth Circuit.
This led to Wilson again attempting to have the two charges dismissed, and the lower court, in light of Bruen, granted his request. Hawaii’s motion to reconsider was denied, so the decision was appealed to the state Supreme Court.
This is when the meandering case took a bizarre turn.
In a unanimous ruling, the high court claimed that “never have Hawaii’s people felt that carrying deadly weapons during daily life is an acceptable or constitutionally protected activity.”
Further, justices wrote that it was their duty to “contemplate and reside with the life force and give consideration to the ‘Aloha Spirit’” when determining the case.
Not the Second Amendment and not the U.S. Supreme Court. The Aloha Spirit.
Now, Hawaii is once again thumbing its nose at Bruen and the law of the land.
Twenty-six attorneys general and all who treasure Second Amendment freedoms should desire that the high court hears this latest case and defends the Constitution.
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