Supreme Court strikes down Hawaii law limiting guns on private property

The Supreme Court struck down Hawaii’s rule barring concealed-carry permit holders from bringing handguns onto private property open to the public unless the owner gave express permission. In a 6-3 decision on June 25, 2026, Justice Samuel Alito wrote that the law violated the Second and Fourteenth Amendments.

Hawaii adopted the law in 2023 after the court’s 2022 New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen decision, which recognized a general right to public carry and required states to defend gun regulations by history and tradition.

The case, Wolford v. Lopez, was brought by Jason Wolford, Alison Wolford, Atom Kasprzycki and the Hawaii Firearms Coalition against Anne Lopez, in her official capacity as Hawaii’s attorney general. The Ninth Circuit upheld Hawaii’s law, finding a historical tradition of banning firearms on private property without oral or written consent.

The justices rejected that theory and sent the case back to the lower court. The court held that states cannot treat silence from a property owner as a blanket prohibition on concealed carry in public-facing businesses. Private owners still retain control over their property, including the option to authorize or refuse firearms, but the state can no longer make denial the default rule for every customer who walks through the door.

The Supreme Court took the case after the lower courts split over the issue: the Second Circuit struck down an identical New York law in Antonyuk v. James, while the Ninth Circuit upheld Hawaii’s version.

In a December 9, 2024 statement in Wilson v. Hawaii, Justice Clarence Thomas, joined by Justice Samuel Alito, criticized the state’s former “may issue” licensing system and noted that Hawaii police granted zero licenses to private citizens in 2017.