Hawaii v. Wilson | |
---|---|
Court | Supreme Court of Hawaii |
Decided | February 7, 2024 |
Court membership | |
Chief judge | Mark E. Recktenwald |
Associate judges | Sabrina McKenna, Todd W. Eddins, Lisa M. Ginoza, Vladimir Devens |
Case opinions | |
"The spirit of Aloha clashes with a federally-mandated lifestyle that lets citizens walk around with deadly weapons during day-to-day activities" |
State of Hawai'i v. Christopher L. Wilson is a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of Hawaii. [1]
It concluded that "there is no state constitutional right to carry a firearm in public" and that "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 [American] Constitution." [1] The case drew widespread popular attention for citing The Wire and the "Spirit of Aloha". Some legal analysts have called the decision a form of nullification. [2]
The justices also criticized the Supreme Court of the United States. [3]
Christopher Wilson was charged with keeping a firearm in an improper place and keeping ammunition in an improper place after being arrested on December 7, 2017, in the West Maui Mountains. He was found in possession of a handgun that had been loaded with a 10-round magazine, which he insisted was for self-defense, without a permit as required by state law.
and that: [1]
Wilson's legal team moved to dismiss the charges, arguing they violated the Second Amendment in the context of the 2022 Supreme Court ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen. This motion was granted by Hawaii's Circuit Court of the Second Circuit though this was appealed by the state, taking the case to the state's supreme court.
The court stated: "We read those words differently than the current United States Supreme Court," Eddins wrote. "We hold that in Hawaii there is no state constitutional right to carry a firearm in public." [3]
Legal analyst Jonathan Turley criticized the decision for its popular culture references and reasoning, arguing that it amounted to illegally nullifying the Second Amendment. [2]
The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution protects the right to keep and bear arms. It was ratified on December 15, 1791, along with nine other articles of the Bill of Rights. In District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), the Supreme Court affirmed for the first time that the right belongs to individuals, for self-defense in the home, while also including, as dicta, that the right is not unlimited and does not preclude the existence of certain long-standing prohibitions such as those forbidding "the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill" or restrictions on "the carrying of dangerous and unusual weapons". In McDonald v. City of Chicago (2010) the Supreme Court ruled that state and local governments are limited to the same extent as the federal government from infringing upon this right. New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen (2022) assured the right to carry weapons in public spaces with reasonable exceptions.
The Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, a part of the Bill of Rights, was ratified on December 15, 1791. It expresses the principle of federalism, whereby the federal government and the individual states share power, by mutual agreement, with the federal government having the supremacy. The Tenth Amendment prescribes that the federal government has only those powers delegated to it by the Constitution, and that all other powers not forbidden to the states by the Constitution are reserved to each state, or to the people.
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on questions of U.S. constitutional or federal law. It also has original jurisdiction over a narrow range of cases, specifically "all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party." In 1803, the Court asserted itself the power of judicial review, the ability to invalidate a statute for violating a provision of the Constitution via the landmark case Marbury v. Madison. It is also able to strike down presidential directives for violating either the Constitution or statutory law.
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In the United States, the right to keep and bear arms is modulated by a variety of state and federal statutes. These laws generally regulate the manufacture, trade, possession, transfer, record keeping, transport, and destruction of firearms, ammunition, and firearms accessories. They are enforced by state, local and the federal agencies which include the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
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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.
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