Spirit of Aloha supersedes the Second Amendment, according to the Hawaii Supreme Court, as it ruled that “there is no state constitutional right to carry a firearm in public [in Hawaii].”
The court’s decision ultimately disregarded three landmark decisions by the US Supreme Court — New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, McDonald v. City of Chicago, and District of Columbia v. Heller.
Hawaii’s Supreme Court decision reverses an earlier ruling by a lower court that allows Christopher Wilson off the hook for carrying an unregistered firearm in the state.
According to Wilson, charges against him infringed his rights under the Bruen ruling and violated his Second Amendment rights.
For the highest court in Hawaii, “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.”
The decision rejects the “founding era’s” interpretation of the Constitution and instead draws inspiration from a television series to help them make “sound” decisions.
The court ruling quoted an HBO show, The Wire: “The thing about the old days, they the old days.”
“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.”
Carrie Severino, president of the conservative legal advocacy group JCN, slammed the decision, saying that the court made a mistake.
“The Hawaii Supreme Court has made a mistake–narrowing a right in the U.S. Constitution–that the U.S. Supreme Court can and should correct,” she said. “The state supreme court justices are as unpersuasive on history as they are in their attempt to distinguish the Wilson case from Bruen in order to escape a ruling that, whether they like it or not, is binding on them.”
Wilson was arrested on December 7, 2017, for carrying a loaded firearm without a permit.
For many, the utter disregard of Hawaii’s Supreme Court is an upfront to the US Supreme Court.
Justice Todd Eddins, one of the panels of Hawaii’s Supreme Court, said: “The spirit of aloha clashes with a federally-mandated lifestyle that lets citizens walk around with deadly weapons during day-to-day activities.”
“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.”
According to the 1986 Hawaiian Spirit Law, the public must be treated with “aloha spirit”, which was described as the coordination of the heart and mind to foster connectivity and peace that calls for contemplation and the presence of five life-force traits: “akahai” (kindness, expressed with tenderness); “lōkahi” (unity, expressed with harmony); “oluʻolu” (agreeableness, expressed with pleasantness); “haʻahaʻa” (humility, expressed with modesty); and “ahonui’” (patience, expressed with perseverance).
Read the full verdict here:
