About this episode

Alan Beck discusses the Supreme Court's ruling on Hawaii's gun-carry restrictions and the implications for Second Amendment challenges.

This week, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) struck down Hawaii's broadest gun-carry restriction. To discuss the outcome of the case, we have the lawyer who won it on the show. Wolford v. Lopez was Alan Beck's first case at SCOTUS, and it turned into his first win. He said he was very happy with where the Court came down and sees it opening several new avenues for Second Amendment challenges. Beck said the majority sided with his view of Hawaii's requirement that anyone carrying a gun get explicit permission to enter publicly accessible private property, which he explained critics have dubbed the "Vampire Rule" because vampires also need permission to enter. He said the Court performed the Bruen test the way he asked and expected, by treating step one as a simple filter rather than an exhaustive historical review. Then they examined and rejected Hawaii's use of anti-poaching laws (and even a Black code) as historical analogues for its modern law. He rejected the contention from several justices and outside commentators that the majority significantly changed the Bruen test, especially at step one. He said the Court did the test in line with how it had previously…

People in this episode

Host: Stephen Gutowski

Guest: Alan Beck

Topics covered

• gun rights
• Supreme Court
• Second Amendment
• legal analysis
• Hawaii gun laws

Keywords

• gun-carry restriction
• Second Amendment
• Supreme Court ruling
• Hawaii
• Vampire Rule

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Supreme Court of the United States, Hawaii

Books & works: Bruen test

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