Washington — The Supreme Court said Friday that it will decide whether Hawaii can bar people with concealed carry permits from bringing handguns on private property that is open to the public unless they receive permission from the property owner.
The high court said it will review a decision by a federal appeals court that upheld Hawaii’s firearms restriction. In agreeing to take up the dispute, it adds gun rights to a term already loaded with hot-button issues including race-based redistricting, state laws targeting transgender athletes and campaign finance, as well as several cases involving President Trump.
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.
Since that 2022 decision, the high court has declined to take up challenges to state assault-weapons bans, as well as others involving longstanding federal laws restricting who can have guns. Last year, however, the Supreme Court upheld a federal law that prohibits people who are subject to domestic violence restraining orders from having firearms.
The legal battle now before the high court arose after Hawaii passed legislation in 2023 that responded to the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in the case known as New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen. The measure prohibits a person with a concealed carry permit from bringing a handgun onto different types of property, including beaches, playgrounds, bars and restaurants that serve liquor, and other “sensitive” locations.
The law also prohibits concealed-carry permit holders from bringing handguns onto private property unless they are given “express authorization” from the property owner, which is the provision the Supreme Court will review. Five other states have similar laws that require a property owner’s permission to carry firearms on private property, such as by posting signs stating that guns are allowed.
The Hawaii Firearms Coalition and three Hawaii gun owners who were issued concealed-carry permits filed a lawsuit in June 2023 challenging the law, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ultimately upheld Hawaii’s law restricting concealed carry on private property.
In seeking the Supreme Court’s review, lawyers for the gun owners warned that the 9th Circuit effectively found that the Second Amendment does not apply to private property open to the public, rendering “illusory the right to carry in public.”
The Trump administration had urged the Supreme Court to take up the dispute, warning that because few property owners post signs allowing or prohibiting guns, Hawaii’s restriction functioned as a “near-complete ban on public carry.”
“A person carrying a handgun for self-defense commits a crime by entering a mall, a gas station, a convenience store, a supermarket, a restaurant, a coffee shop, or even a parking lot,” the Trump administration argued. “Yet, in the decision below, the Ninth Circuit upheld that rule against a Second Amendment challenge.”
Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued that in Hawaii, a person who carries a handgun for self-defense cannot run errands without the risk of running afoul of the law. He said that the restriction aims only to impede the exercise of Second Amendment rights.
Janet Carter, managing director of Second Amendment Litigation, at Everytown Law, urged the Supreme Court to uphold the law.
“The Ninth Circuit was absolutely right to say it’s constitutional to prohibit guns on private property unless the owner says they want guns there,” she said in a statement.
Arguments in the case will likely take place early next year, with a decision expected by the end of June or early July.
