Hawaii's Supreme Court reversed a lower court decision finding that Hawaii was subject to federal law and Supreme Court precedent, and found that the Supreme Court had erred in its New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen.  

READ: Supreme Court Rules You Can't 'Bear' Arms Unless You Can Carry Them for Self-Defense

Writing for a unanimous court, Justice Todd Eddins said, "We hold that in Hawaii there is no state constitutional right to carry a firearm in public." 

The court reached that conclusion as it reversed a lower-court judge's decision dismissing two charges filed against Christopher Wilson after he was arrested for trespassing on someone's property with an unregistered pistol.

Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez, a Democrat, hailed the ruling as a "landmark decision that affirms the constitutionality of crucial gun-safety legislation."

A lawyer for Wilson, Benjamin Lowenthal, said he and his colleagues were reviewing the ruling and "taking stock of our options."

At the trial court level, a judge had concluded the charges against Wilson violated his right to keep and bear arms under the Second Amendment in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark 2022 ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen.

The court also left unchanged the reason Mr. Wilson was carrying an "unregistered" pistol in the first place. Hawaii maintains the "may issue" regimen for issuing concealed carry licenses that Bruen outlawed. 

Prior to the ruling, Hawaii police chiefs issued only six carry permits in 21 years, according to state data.

And since the ruling, Maui County is the only place where a single permit application has been approved. Alana Pico, a spokesperson for the department, confirmed the approval of one application but the department didn’t immediately respond to a public records request seeking more information.

While they were declaring Heller and Bruen were wrongly decided and violated Hawaii's understanding of what the US Constitution means, the court took a swipe at the Dobbs decision that found infanticide was not a Constitutionally protected activity, accusing the Supreme Court of engaging in "historical fiction."

This is a deeply unserious opinion by a deeply unserious court. They nearly underline their lack of seriousness by quoting from the HBO series "The Wire" to slam originalism; "The thing about the old days, they the old days."

If this is let stand, it means the entire doctrine of incorporation is dead, and we can start requiring elected officials to be confessing Christians and make porn a felony again. Okay...maybe I shouldn't be upset. 

As RedStater Bill Shipley noted on "X,"

The Hawaii Court could have written its entire opinion just the way it has, and added a single sentence/ paragraph at the end that began "Nevertheless" and explained the SCOTUS decisions in Breun and Heller required it to uphold the lower court decision dismissing the charges.  

They could have had their diatribe for 50 pages while respected their place in the Constitutional order of things -- even if they didn't like it.   

Instead, they just lit themselves on fire.