CV NEWS FEED // The Supreme Court of Hawaii bucked the Second Amendment in a Thursday ruling which cited the fact that the nation’s constitutional right to carry arms is “old.”
“We hold that in Hawai’i there is no state constitutional right to carry a firearm in public,” stated the court in Wednesday’s 5-0 ruling.
The ruling opinion quoted the TV Series “The Wire,” which aired on HBO from 2002 to 2008:
As the world turns, it makes no sense for contemporary society to pledge allegiance to the founding era’s culture, realities, laws, and understanding of the Constitution. “The thing about the old days, they the old days.” The Wire: Home Rooms (HBO television broadcast Sept. 24, 2006) (Season Four, Episode Three).
The court clarified that while “Article I, section 17 of the Hawaiʻi Constitution mirrors the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution,” it “read[s] those words differently than the current United States Supreme Court.”
“In Hawai’i, the Aloha Spirit inspires constitutional interpretation,” the court stated later in the ruling:
When this court exercises “power on behalf of the people and in fulfillment of [our] responsibilities, obligations, and service to the people” we “may contemplate and reside with the life force and give consideration to the ‘Aloha Spirit.’”
“The spirit of Aloha clashes with a federally-mandated lifestyle that lets citizens walk around with deadly weapons during day-to-day activities,” continued the Court:
The history of the Hawaiian Islands does not include a society where armed people move about the community to possibly combat the deadly aims of others.
The government’s interest in reducing firearms violence through reasonable weapons regulations has preserved peace and tranquility in Hawaiʻi. A free-wheeling right to carry guns in public degrades other constitutional rights.
“There is no individual right to keep and bear arms under article I, section 17,” the opinion claimed. “So there is no constitutional right to carry a firearm in public for possible self-defense.”
The text of Article I, section 17 of the Hawaii Constitution and the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution are identical. Both read: “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”
The U.S. Supreme Court has consistently interpreted the Second Amendment to include the right of people to carry firearms for self-defense in some public places.
As The Daily Wire reported:
In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed the right to “keep and bear arms” in D.C. v. Heller. Again, in 2022, the high court ruled in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen that “the right of the people to keep and bear arms” extends beyond protecting yourself at home.
Observers were quick to bash the Hawaii Supreme Court’s unorthodox justification to break from this precedent.
“Does this mean police officers in Hawaii will no longer carry guns?” Sen. Mike Lee, R-UT, asked on X (formerly known as Twitter). “How about the Hawaii National Guard? U.S. military personnel stationed in Hawaii? Security guards?”
“What other constitutionally protected rights will be abrogated as incompatible with ‘the spirit of aloha?’” Lee added.
Author and Blaze Media host Steve Deace noted that the Hawaii ruling came just after a number of other events that many see as undermining the integrity of the country.
“[The Hawaii] state Supreme Court created an ‘Aloha clause’ to ignore the Constitution, and it was declared to a world full of enemies our president is too senile and feeble to be held accountable by the Department of Justice,” Deace wrote on X.
“I’d post a sarcastic meme to sum it all up, but we are too far down the rabbit hole for gallows humor to soothe the pain and frustration now,” he added. “This is end of empires stuff straight out of history books. The stuff of divine judgment. But we called it Thursday.”
