Supreme Court Voids Hawaii Gun-Carry Permission Rule but Leaves Private Bans Intact

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday struck down Hawaii’s requirement that licensed gun owners obtain express permission before carrying firearms onto private property open to the public. The 6-3 decision came in Wolford v.

Lopez. Justice Samuel Alito wrote the majority opinion. He rejected Hawaii’s citation of an 1865 Louisiana statute enacted as part of the post-Civil War Black Codes, calling the law a “tainted artifact” enacted to disarm newly freed Black Americans.

Alito concluded the statute “cannot be taken seriously” as evidence of the Second Amendment’s original public meaning. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented. She argued the Court should have first decided whether the Louisiana law itself violated the Second Amendment or whether the constitutional problem was racially discriminatory enforcement.

“It might well be that the Black Codes are invalid inputs for Bruen’s test, but only if they violated the Second Amendment — which may or may not be the case,” Jackson wrote. Attorney Kevin O’Grady, who represented the plaintiffs, criticized Hawaii’s reliance on the statute.

“It is disgraceful that any state would rely on a law specifically aimed at taking away the Second Amendment rights or any constitutional right of Black Americans as it was at that time,” O’Grady told Fox News Digital.

Hannah Hill, vice president of the National Association of Gun Rights, and Tyler Yzaguirre, president of the Second Amendment Institute, both supported the majority. Businesses may still ban guns by posting or enforcing a “no firearms” policy.