Supreme Court strikes down Hawaii’s private property gun restrictions

The Supreme Court on Thursday invalidated Hawaii’s gun restrictions on private property in a 6-3 vote along ideological lines, ruling it violates the constitutional right to bear arms.

Justice Samuel Alito agreed with gun rights advocates that the state can’t block handgun possession on private property by default unless someone receives the owner’s express consent.

“This regime hobbles what the Second Amendment protects: the right of Americans to carry arms for self-defense as they go about their daily lives. We hold that the law is unconstitutional,” Alito wrote.

The court’s three liberal justices dissented.

It’s the latest gun measure to fall under the conservative majority’s expanded Second Amendment test, which requires firearm restrictions to be consistent with the nation’s historical tradition.

In its search for historical analogies, Hawaii turned to founding-era anti-poaching laws and gun restrictions later passed as part of the Black Codes.

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Hawaii enacted the measure, known as Act 52, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Second Amendment expansion.

Act 52 requires concealed carry permitholders to get explicit permission from a property owner, either verbally, in writing or via a “clear and conspicuous” sign, before carrying handguns on private property that is open to the public.

That includes a wide range of places, from shopping malls to bowling alleys to restaurants to banks.

Three Hawaii residents — Jason Wolford, Alison Wolford and Atom Kasprzycki — and the Hawaii Firearms Coalition challenged the provision in federal court.

They won before a district judge but sought the Supreme Court’s review after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit sided with the state.

Their challenge garnered outside support from gun rights groups, including the National Rifle Association, National Association for Gun Rights and Gun Owners of America. They all filed friend-of-the-court briefs, as did the Trump administration and roughly 25 Republican-led states.

Groups that agree with strengthened gun control voiced support for Hawaii, including the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence and Everytown for Gun Safety, more than 15 Democratic-led states and the cities of Baltimore and New Haven, Conn.

It’s the second decision this term in which the Supreme Court has sided with gun rights advocates in a Second Amendment challenge.

On June 18, the court limited the government’s ability to prosecute people for firearm possession merely because they sometimes smoke marijuana.

And more cases are waiting in the wings. For months, the justices have sat on requests to take up whether states can ban AR-15s and high-capacity magazines.