BELLEVUE, WA – In what may be the first time in history, the United States has filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in full support of petitioners in a case challenging the constitutionality of a state gun control law under the Second Amendment, and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms offers kudos to the Trump administration for making it happen.
The case is known as Wolford v. Lopez, and it pits the State of Hawaii squarely against the Second Amendment. CCRKBA’s interest in this case is unique, as Hawaii is one of a dozen states suggested by the committee to Attorney General Pam Bondi for investigation by the Justice Department’s recently-announced Second Amendment Task Force.
“It is cases like this which compelled the Citizens Committee to launch our online petition to A.G. Bondi, asking her to focus the Task Force’s attention on Hawaii and eleven other states,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “As the administration’s brief details, Hawaii’s Act 52 was defiantly passed in response to the Supreme Court’s 2022 Bruen ruling, and is designed to essentially make the exercise of Second Amendment rights impossible in the Aloha State. No state can say it is above the Bill of Rights, and this is essentially what Hawaii is doing.”
As noted in the government’s brief, which is submitted by Solicitor General D. John Sauer, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, Deputy Solicitor General Sarah M. Harris and Vivek Suri, assistant to the Solicitor General, Hawaii is one of five states which have adopted laws allowing private citizens to carry arms on private property only if the owner provides express permission to do so.
“The scope and operation of Hawaii’s default rule thus establish that the rule serves no legitimate objective and that it instead seeks simply to impede the carrying of firearms. That is plainly unconstitutional,” the administration’s brief states.
“We could not have said it better,” Gottlieb acknowledged. “Coincidentally, all five of the states mentioned in the brief, including Hawaii, are specifically named in our online petition. We’re hoping the submission of this important amicus brief signals the beginning of the administration’s promised effort to defend the Second Amendment from infringements enacted over the years by various states. It is time to end these blatant and deliberate constitutional violations, and we finally have an administration willing to accomplish that task.”