Supreme Court Justices hand gun rights advocates a victory

The U.S. Supreme Court favored gun rights activists in its ruling on Thursday in Wolford v. Lopez.

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The case originated in 2023 after a group of Maui residents and the Hawaii Firearms Coalition challenged the state’s firearm law, known as the “vampire rule,” which prohibits concealed-carry permit holders from bringing their firearms onto private property open to the public, such as restaurants or stores, unless they have prior permission from the owner.

Hawaii enacted the law in 2023, less than a year after the Supreme Court made clear a citizen has the right to conceal carry for their own protection outside the home in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen.

In a 6-3 decision, the conservative majority of the court sided with the gun owners that the Hawaii law violated citizens’ Second and 14th Amendment rights.

“Hawaii’s new rule imposes severe restrictions on the daily activities of residents who have satisfied the State’s rigorous requirements for the issuance of a carry permit,” Justice Samuel Alito . “This law flips the default rule at common law, under which anyone has an implied license to enter property held open to the public unless the property owner withdraws consent.”

“The Second Amendment has the same meaning in all parts of the United States,” Alito said. “It cannot give way to ‘the spirit of Aloha’ in Hawaii.”

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The liberal justices dissented. In her opinion, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, joined by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, argued that the case is an issue of property rights, not firearm rights.

“Hawaii’s law does not implicate the Second Amendment because there is no right to carry a gun onto private property without consent (as all agree), and the Constitution does not dictate the form of that required consent,” she said. “And even if the Second Amendment were implicated here, Hawaii has proffered ample analogues demonstrating a history and tradition of States protecting their residents’ property rights by requiring those wishing to carry guns onto private property to get express consent from the property owner before doing so.”

Following the ruling, Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Justice, posted on X, “@CivilRights says ‘mahalo’ to SCOTUS! This @TheJusticeDept fights for you!”