Wolford v. Lopez
In Wolford v. Lopez, (2025), the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a Hawaiian law which prohibited people carrying firearms onto private property open to the public without express consent.
Background
Hawaii has, even before becoming the 50th state, a long tradition against public ownership of firearms. It has attempted on several occasions to pass laws in contradiction of the Second Amendment. The most recent one, the subject of the challenge, involved yet another such attempt.
Under English Common Law, the default rule is that if private property is open to the public (such as a retail establishment), any person may legally enter onto the property unless the property owner (or another having the right to control access, such as a lessee or a business manager) affirmatively denies such access. Although Federal law prohibits denial on the basis of race, it does not prohibit businesses from denying access on other grounds.[1]
Hawaii attempted to deny access by reversing the Common Law: its law stated that access to people carrying firearms was prohibited unless the owner affirmatively granted such access. Three Hawaiian citizens filed suit in Federal District Court, seeking temporary and permanent injunctive relief on the basis that the law was unconstitutional. The District Court granted relief, only to have it overturned by the (infamously liberal) Ninth Circuit, where a panel reversed the decision and the court en banc refused to hear the case.
Hawaii sought to uphold the law by analogy to laws in New Jersey and Pennsylvania (which governed hunting rights) and, in a shock, a Louisiana law passed after the Civil War which essentially kept Blacks disarmed, leaving them vulnerable to hostile Whites.
Decision of the Supreme Court
In a 6-3 decision the Court ruled that Hawaii's law violated the Second Amendment right of a person who could legally carry a firearm into a private place. The state could not prohibit such, only the property owner or his/her designee could do so.
References
- ↑ Texas law, for example, allows businesses to deny access to anyone carrying a firearm, whether concealed or open carry, but requires strict compliance with the law in terms of what must be publicly displayed, including the text and font size.