WASHINGTON, June 25 (DC Times Online) — The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down Hawaii’s law requiring concealed-carry permit holders to get a property owner’s permission before entering certain private businesses open to the public, ruling 6-3 that the restriction violated the Second Amendment.
Writing for the majority in Wolford v. Lopez, Justice Samuel Alito said Hawaii’s law “violates the constitutional right to keep and bear arms.” He also wrote that the measure burdened “the right of Americans to carry arms for self-defense as they go about their daily lives.”
The decision is the latest in a line of major gun-rights cases at the court. In District of Columbia v. Heller in 2008, the justices struck down Washington, D.C.’s handgun ban, and in McDonald v. City of Chicago in 2010 they extended the right recognized in Heller to state and local governments.
Hawaii’s law had required permit holders to secure an owner’s affirmative permission, or rely on posted signage, before carrying firearms onto some privately owned properties open to the public. Challengers argued the rule conflicted with the court’s modern Second Amendment precedent.
