DOJ Files Brief with Supreme Court to Overturn Hawaii Law ‘Effectively’ Banning Public Carry of Firearms

The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a brief with the Supreme Court to overturn a Hawaii law that “effectively bans” people from carrying their firearms in public.

In a post on X, Attorney General Pam Bondi pointed out that other states such as California, Maryland, New Jersey, and New York “have similar laws” regarding the public carry of firearms. Bondi also vowed that her DOJ would “continue to be the most pro-Second Amendment Justice Department in history.”

“Today, @TheJusticeDept took decisive action to protect the Second Amendment by filing a brief in the Supreme Court challenging a Hawaii state law that effectively bans public carry,” Bondi said. “As our brief states, ‘Hawaii’s law plainly violates the Second Amendment.'”

“It’s not just Hawaii that is effectively banning public carry,” Bondi added in her post. “California, Maryland, New Jersey, and New York have similar laws. So a win in this case will restore Second Amendment rights for millions of Americans.”

“The ‘right to carry a handgun for self-defense outside the home’ ranks among the Second Amendment’s most basic guarantees,” the brief says. “NYSRPA v. Bruen, 597 U.S. 1, 10 (2022). Bruen thus held that the government cannot enact licensing regimes that effectively eliminate the right to public carry. Id. at 15. Nor, more broadly, may the government restrict firearms without showing that the restriction fits within a discernible tradition of firearm regulation. Id. at 17; see United States v. Rahimi, 602 U.S. 680, 692 (2024).”

The brief continues in part:

Bruen invalidated Hawaii’s prior firearm-licensing regime, under which Hawaiians could virtually never obtain public-carry licenses. Hawaii responded by loosening its licensing restrictions, yet it simultaneously enacted a new restriction that effectively nullifies those licenses and prevents public carry. Specifically, Hawaii made it a crime for licensees to carry firearms on private property open to the public—the very places where licensees would go in their daily lives—unless those establishments provide “[u]nambiguous written or verbal authorization” or post “clear and conspicuous signage” allowing firearms. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 134—9.5(b). Four other States whose public-carry laws Bruen invalidated—California, Maryland, New Jersey, and New York—enacted materially similar restrictions.

In Hawaii, public-carry licensees who stop for gas with a pistol in the glove compartment risk a year in prison if they fail to obtain the gas-station owner’s unambiguous consent. The same goes for licensees who run errands at grocery stores, dine at restaurants, or stop to buy coffee. A mere nod from the property owner—or an insufficiently conspicuous sign—puts license holders at risk of prosecution even if the owner welcomes firearms but failed to express his approbation clearly enough. Meanwhile, Hawaii exempts non-licensees from this restriction—so hunters, target shooters, and out-of-state police officers can publicly carry firearms on the same property without the owner’s affirmative consent.

CBS News reported in October that the Supreme Court said it would “review a decision by a federal appeals court that upheld Hawaii’s firearms restriction”:

The legal battle is the latest involving gun regulations to arrive at the Supreme Court since it expanded Second Amendment rights in 2022 with a decision that set a new standard for evaluating the constitutionality of firearms restrictions. This case appears to be the first that the Supreme Court will hear since its ruling that involves the places where guns can be carried.

Breitbart News’s AWR Hawkins reported that Hawaii Gov. Josh Greene (D) signed legislation in June 2023 that prohibits the concealed carry of firearms “for self-defense in movie theaters, on beaches, in stadiums, and numerous other places.”