Supreme Court takes Second Amendment case challenging Hawaii gun law

The Supreme Court will review a case regarding Hawaii's laws restricting where people are able to carry firearms.

Hawaii's laws ban guns on private property unless the owner has specifically allowed them. Guns are also prohibited from beaches, parks, bars and restaurants.

The case centers on whether restricting handguns specifically in certain so-called "sensitive locations" can include public property, such as parks, beaches and government buildings, and private property accessible to the public, such as hotels and stores, unless the owner specifically allows them. Without explanation, the Court chose only to focus on the private property aspect when accepting the appeal for review.

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The Trump administration has argued that the law violates the Court's 2022 ruling on the Second Amendment, in which it found that people have the right to carry firearms in public. However, state attorneys say concealed-carry regulations have been changed to align with the ruling.

"From the earliest days of the republic, individuals have been free to carry firearms on private property unless the property owner directs otherwise," the Trump administration's brief in support of the challengers reads. "Because most property owners do not post signs either allowing or forbidding guns, Hawaii’s default rule functions as a near-complete ban on public carry. A person carrying a handgun for self-defense commits a crime by entering a mall, a gas station, a convenience store, a supermarket, a restaurant, a coffee shop, or even a parking lot."

"The structure and operation of Hawaii’s law reveal that the law serves no legitimate purpose and instead seeks only to inhibit the exercise of the right to bear arms," the administration added.

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In its opposition to the plaintiffs' petition, Hawaii argued that "there is no right to engage in speech or carry firearms on someone else’s property without her consent."

The case is set to be argued later this term, and the ruling is expected to be released by June 2026.  

Three Hawaii residents and a gun advocacy group based in Honolulu brought about a challenge to the law, which was eventually blocked by a judge. However, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals largely reversed the decisions and ruled against the plaintiffs, leading to the Supreme Court appeal.

The plaintiffs argued in their petition for cert that the Ninth Circuit's ruling made it "impossible as a practical matter to carry a firearm for lawful self-defense in Hawaii." They also noted that in his dissent, Judge Lawrence VanDyke said the law "effectively nullified the Second Amendment rights of millions of Hawaiians."

Hawaii Gov. Josh Green signed the restrictions into law in June 2023, prompting the plaintiffs' challenge, according to Reuters.

In 2022, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that New York's regulations that made it difficult to obtain a license to carry a concealed handgun were unconstitutionally restrictive, and that it should be easier to obtain such a license.

"In this case, petitioners and respondents agree that ordinary, law-abiding citizens have a similar right to carry handguns publicly for their self-defense. We too agree, and now hold, consistent with Heller and McDonald, that the Second and Fourteenth Amendments protect an individual’s right to carry a handgun for self-defense outside the home," Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in the Court's opinion, referencing two previous gun cases.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.