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 privately owned places open to the public, ruling in Wolford v. Lopez.
Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the 6-3 majority that Hawaii’s rule “violates the constitutional right to keep and bear arms.” He also wrote that the law “hobble[s] what the Second Amendment protects: the right of Americans to carry arms for self-defense as they go about their daily lives.”
The decision invalidates what critics called Hawaii’s “vampire rule,” which barred concealed carry on covered private property unless owners affirmatively allowed it or posted signs. Three liberal justices dissented.
The ruling adds to the court’s modern Second Amendment cases, including District of Columbia v. Heller in 2008, which struck down Washington, D.C.’s handgun ban, and McDonald v. City of Chicago in 2010, which extended the right to state and local governments.
