The Supreme Court has called out the state of Hawaii, after an earlier law that essentially made it impossible to get a license to carry a firearm was struck down, for replacing it with a similar demand that accomplished essentially the same thing.
That law, too, now has been banished.
The court ruled 6-3 that Hawaii’s newest gun ban was unconstitutional under the Second and 14th Amendments.
The majority opinion was a major win for gun rights activists as it threw out Hawaii’s insistence that it could require gun owners to get “permission” to carry firearms on any private property that is open to the public in the state.
The opinion pointed out that “For years, the State of Hawaii made it almost impossible to obtain a license to carry a firearm. Four years ago, however, this Court held in New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn., Inc. v. Bruen, 597 U. S. 1, that the Second and Fourteenth Amendments protect the right to carry hand guns outside the home for self-defense.
“Hawaii responded by replacing its old law on carry permits with new laws that achieved a similar result,” the court said.
The fight this time is over the state’s “law that prohibits firearms on private property open to the public without the express and affirmative consent of the property owner.”
The court found the law a burden.
“When these permit holders leave home, not only must they take care to avoid all the territory where the possession of a gun is prohibited outright, but they may also be barred from entering many places that people routinely visit in the course of their daily routines, such as gas stations, restaurants, and stores.”
The ruling said Hawaii officials were flipping 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 opinion cited both the earlier Heller and McDonald rulings, which struck down gun limits imposed by extremists.
BREAKING: The U.S. Supreme Court has struck down a Hawaii law in a 6-3 ruling that barred people with concealed-carry permits from bringing firearms onto private property open to the public — such as stores, restaurants, hotels, malls, and gas stations — unless the property owner… pic.twitter.com/puREcKLnJV
— RedWave Press (@RedWavePress) June 25, 2026
NEWS: The Supreme Court just struck down Hawaii’s bid to keep guns out of stores, restaurants, and other businesses open to the public.
In a 6-3 ruling in Wolford v. Lopez, the Court held that Hawaii violated the Second Amendment when it flipped the default rule on private… pic.twitter.com/9535aiQslS
— Benjamin Ryan (@benryanwriter) June 25, 2026
It’s conclusion in the current fight? “Hawaii’s law prohibiting licensed concealed-carry permit holders from carrying handguns on private property open to the public without the property owner’s express authorization violates the Second and Fourteenth Amendments.”
“The restrictions imposed by Hawaii’s challenged law fall within the plain text of the Second Amendment, so the law is presumptively unconstitutional. No party disputes that petitioners are among ‘the people’ protected by the Second Amendment or that they seek to ‘bear’ ‘Arms.’ Therefore, ‘the plain text of the Second Amendment protects’ what petitioners want to do: carry handguns for self-defense,” the ruling said.
Hawaii had argued that it’s “particular customs and laws” gave it permission to set such requirements, but, the majority said, “The Second Amendment cannot give way to ‘the spirit of Aloha’ in Hawaii any more than it can yield to the spirit of the Big Apple (Bruen) or the Windy City (McDonald).”
It said, “Merely local attitudes can neither shrink nor inflate the meaning of fundamental Bill of Rights guarantees that apply to the States through the Fourteenth Amendment.”
Justice Samuel Alito delivered the majority decision. The three justices appointed by Democrat presidents dissented, confirming they all would have endorsed the extremist gun limits.
“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,” Alito wrote. “We hold that the law is unconstitutional.”
