Supreme Court strikes down Hawaii gun-carry law

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a Hawaii law that barred concealed-carry permit holders from bringing firearms onto private property open to the public unless the owner gave express permission, ruling 6-3 that the restriction violates the Second Amendment.

The decision in Wolford v. Lopez sided with a group of Maui County residents and a gun-rights group who challenged the measure, which critics nicknamed the “vampire rule” because it required armed permit holders to obtain an invitation before entering, as PBS NewsHour reported.

What the court decided

Writing for the majority, Justice Samuel Alito said the Hawaii law “hobbles what the Second Amendment protects: the right of Americans to carry arms for self-defense as they go about their daily lives.” He found the measure fell within “the plain text of the Second Amendment” and was therefore “presumptively unconstitutional.”

Applying the two-step test from the court's 2022 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, the majority concluded that Hawaii could not point to a historical tradition justifying the restriction. As SCOTUSblog noted, Alito's 24-page opinion stressed that “the Second Amendment has the same meaning in all parts of the United States.” In the opinion, he added that it “cannot give way to ‘the spirit of Aloha’ in Hawaii.”

The court reversed a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, which had upheld the law after a federal district court initially sided with the challengers.

The Hawaii law

Hawaii enacted the measure in 2023, less than a year after Bruen recognized a right to carry handguns in public for self-defense and prompted a wave of new carry permits. The law made it a misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in prison, for a concealed-carry permit holder to bring a gun onto private property open to the public — places such as gas stations, restaurants and grocery stores — without the owner's permission.

The rule flipped the default that applies in most of the country, where licensed carriers may enter publicly accessible private property unless the owner expressly prohibits firearms. As Jurist reported, Alito wrote that the change imposed a “new and significant burden” on permit holders, who would otherwise risk criminal liability simply by stopping at an everyday business.

Hawaii defended the statute as a property measure rather than a gun ban, arguing it merely clarified that opening property to the public did not extend an implied invitation to carry firearms. The Trump administration backed the challengers, calling the law “blatantly unconstitutional.”

Reports differ on how many states have comparable laws. SCOTUSblog reported that the decision affects four other states — California, Maryland, New York and New Jersey — with similar measures, while CBS News described Hawaii as one of five states with such restrictions and noted that versions in New York, California and Maryland had already been blocked by courts.

The dissent

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, joined by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, dissented, arguing the case turned on property rights rather than gun rights. The Hawaii law, she wrote, “fairly applies a first principle of property law—the right to exclude—and does no harm to the Second Amendment.”

She accused the majority of having “manipulated Bruen into a free-for-all that lets the Judiciary thwart the will of legislatures by privileging access to firearms above all else,” according to CBS News. “Today's decision makes one thing clear: The Court's objective is protecting guns, not consistently preserving any principle of law,” Jackson added.

Justice Elena Kagan wrote a separate dissent, concluding the law was a permissible modern analogue to colonial and founding-era restrictions on carrying guns onto another's land without consent.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett, joined in part by Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, wrote a concurring opinion pushing back on Jackson's framing. When “a State enacts a property law that regulates arms-bearing conduct,” Barrett wrote, “that law implicates the Second Amendment.”

What it means

The ruling means that, in Hawaii, people may carry firearms onto privately owned property open to the public unless the owner specifically bans them. It does not affect Hawaii's separate restrictions on guns in places such as bars, beaches, parks and sensitive locations like schools or government buildings, which were not before the court and are being challenged in lower courts.

The decision is the latest in a line of Second Amendment rulings since Bruen. It came shortly after the court held that the government cannot automatically disarm people who regularly use marijuana and are not dangerous. Earlier in the term, the justices left a New York gun-industry liability law intact. In prior terms the court struck down a ban on bump stocks but upheld a federal law barring people under domestic-violence restraining orders from possessing guns.

Frequently Asked Questions

What did the Supreme Court rule in Wolford v. Lopez?

The court ruled 6-3 that Hawaii's law requiring concealed-carry permit holders to get an owner's permission before carrying firearms onto private property open to the public violates the Second Amendment.

What was the “vampire rule”?

It was a nickname for Hawaii's 2023 law, so called because it required armed permit holders to obtain permission before entering private property open to the public, echoing the lore that vampires need an invitation to enter.

Who wrote the majority and dissenting opinions?

Justice Samuel Alito wrote the majority opinion. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, joined by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and Justice Elena Kagan filed a separate dissent.

Does the ruling affect Hawaii's other gun restrictions?

No. The decision does not touch Hawaii's separate rules limiting firearms in places such as bars, beaches, parks and sensitive locations like schools and government buildings, which were not at issue in the case.

Sources

Reporting compiled from court records and the cited source outlets.