Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen is leading a coalition urging SCOTUS to intervene and halt Hawaii’s “sensitive” places concealed carry ban.
The coalition is asking SCOTUS to take action via Wolford v. Lopez, the case through which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit allowed Hawaii’s “sensitive” places ban to stand. The coalition noted that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit heard a case dealing with similar legislation from New York and went the other way, “[upholding] an injunction on a nearly identical…law.”
The different rulings created a circuit split, setting the stage for SCOTUS to step in.
In their filing to SCOTUS, the coalition claimed the Ninth Circuit’s decision to allow Hawaii’s “sensitive” places ban to stand actually reduces the Second Amendment to position of protecting rights apparently presumed to be of lesser value than other rights. They noted that this flies in the face of Bruen (2022), which promised “law-abiding gun owners that the Second Amendment was no longer a ‘second-class right.’”
The coalition warned:
Lower courts have largely failed to follow through on that promise, resorting to manipulative en banc practices, ahistorical interpretations of covered ‘arms,’ and improperly calibrating the level of generality for Bruen’s inquiry. These incursions on citizens’ public-carry rights will continue to grow unless this Court intervenes.
They also noted:
The Second Amendment protects the right to possess handguns — at home and in public — for self-defense. McDonald, 561 U.S. at 767; Bruen, 597 U.S. at 70-71. With few exceptions, Hawaii relies on out-of-date historical analogues passed well after Reconstruction — “surely too slender a reed on which to hang a historical tradition of restricting the right to public carry” in the locations challenged here.
AG Knudsen spoke to Breitbart News news about the coalition’s filing, saying, “Without swift correction, the Ninth Circuit’s decision will muddle the clear Second Amendment standards this Court has adopted. And its decision will encourage other states to erode Americans’ essential right to keep and bear arms.”
The other 25 members of the coalition are Attorneys General Steve Marshall (Alabama), Treg Taylor (Alaska), Tim Griffin (Arkansas), James Uthmeier (Florida), Christopher Carr (Georgia), Theodore Rokita (Indiana), Brenna Bird (Iowa), Kris Kobach (Kansas), Russell Coleman (Kentucky), Liz Murrill (Louisiana), Lynn Finch (Mississippi), Andrew Bailey (Missouri), Michael Hilgers (Nebraska), John Formella (New Hampshire), Drew Wrigley (North Dakota), Dave Yost (Ohio), Gentner Drummond (Oklahoma), Alan Wilson (South Carolina), Marty Jackley (South Dakota), Ken Paxton (Texas), Derek Brown (Utah), John McCuskey (West Virginia), Bridget Hill (Wyoming), Warren Peterson (President of the Arizona Senate), and Steven Montenegro (Speaker of the Arizona House).
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a member of Gun Owners of America, a Pulsar Night Vision pro-staffer, and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly:
