The Hawaii Supreme Court says that “spirit of Aloha” overrides the U.S. Constitution. The court upheld a lower court conviction of a man who had carried a gun in public without having a permit.
In its ruling, the court cited the “spirit of Aloha” and referred to an HBO crime series, “The Wire.”
The ruling is seen by many as a defiance of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2022 that upheld the Second Amendment.
“The thing about the old days, they the old days,” the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled.
For those who didn’t have HBO, that is a quote from season four, episode three of “The Wire,” and it was intended to convey that the founding of the country and the culture of the past doesn’t direct current times or current interpretation of constitutional law.
Justice Todd Eddins wrote that the “spirit of Aloha clashes with a federally-mandated lifestyle that lets citizens walk around with deadly weapons during day-to-day activities.”
The ruling says “there is no state constitutional right to carry a firearm in public.”
The case involves Christopher Wilson, who was charged in 2017 on various counts for carrying an unregistered gun, which he said was for self defense after he saw a group of men on his Maui property at night. He was arrested for trespass while he was hiking “and gazing at the moon,” police arrested Christopher L. Wilson, who was “hiking and gazing at the moon,” near Maalaea, while he carried a load .22 pistol in his waistband.
Wilson’s attorneys argued that a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, reaffirmed that carrying a firearm in public is a constitutionally protected right.
The ruling ruling says Hawai’i’s history “does not include a society where armed people move about the community to possibly combat the deadly aims of others.” It makes Hawaii into a separate sovereign state, not subject to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“We reject Wilson’s constitutional challenges. Conventional interpretive modalities and Hawaiʻi’s historical tradition of firearm regulation rule out an individual right to keep and bear arms under the Hawaiʻi Constitution. In Hawaiʻi, there is no state constitutional right to carry a firearm in public,” the ruling said.
“The court found that the text, purpose, and historical tradition of the Hawaii Constitution do not support an individual right to carry firearms in public. The court reasoned that the language of article I, section 17, which mirrors the Second Amendment, ties the right to bear arms to the context of a well-regulated militia. It does not extend this right to non-militia purposes. The court also considered Hawaii’s history of strict weapons regulation and the intent of Hawaii’s framers,” explains law.justia.com.
The full ruling can be read at this link.
