The Hawaii Supreme Court handed down a unanimous opinion on Wednesday declaring that its state constitution grants individuals absolutely no right to keep and bear arms outside the context of military service. Its decision rejected the U.S. Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Second Amendment, refusing to interpolate SCOTUS’ shoddy historical analysis into Hawaii law. Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern discussed the ruling on this week’s Slate Plus segment of Amicus; their conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
It’s an amazing case because the Hawaii Constitution has a provision that is the same as the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It literally uses the exact same words as the Second Amendment. And Justice Eddins said: Even though the provisions are the same, we will not interpret them the same way, because we think the U.S. Supreme Court clearly got it wrong in Heller when it said the Second Amendment creates an individual right to bear arms.
The bill of rights protects rights, it doesn’t create rights. That is a pretty fundamental concept.
Right. Because rights are created by God, right?
Rights are not created, bestowed, issued, manufactured, or handed out.
They aren’t a license or a badge or something physical.
Right. Just like God.
I think the important thing is to remember how important it always is to fight for them, at any rate.
Internet atheists see any mention of God or religion as an opportunity to hijack a discussion.
When it’s literally a discussion of where rights come from and theists suggesting they come from God (while avoiding the word God and pretending they mean something else), it’s not hijacking. You’re the one trying to hijack to discussion to talk about how much you hate atheists.
The conservatives on the supreme court are crap historians and even worse judges.
Originalism is nothing more than a mechanism for the Supreme Court to undo past precedent they don’t like. Welcome to the new lochner era.
Hopefully we end this one like we ended the last, with a wave of socialism and a tough president willing to pack the court.
Hopefully we end this one like we ended the last, with a wave of socialism and a tough president willing to pack the court.
Given the current crop of politicians moving through the state and federal seats, I’m not holding my breath.
Sure, if Alabama can ignore SCOTUS, why not?
And Texas.
Speaking of Texas laws, could the rest of us pass a law that allows private citizens to sue anyone in possession of guns?
Yes, but then you’d have to enforce it.
A big problem with modern “well if you do X then I’ll do Y” is that - even in brighter blue states like California and Minnesota and Vermont - the local Sheriffs and Police Departments are all still Fash AF.
I think the fact that there’s no government enforcement is what allowed that to work in Texas. You couldn’t challenge the state, because it’s private citizens that are “enforcing” the law through civil action.
You couldn’t challenge the state, because it’s private citizens that are “enforcing” the law through civil action.
Its private citizens who are alerting sheriff’s deputies and local pd by filing these complaints. They’ve effectively created a kind of legal framework for anti-abortion SWATing.
The system only works because the cops/prosecutors/judges are assumed willing to play along. Specifically, Ken Paxton - the state AG - is fishing for pregnant woman and their attendant physicians to hook and hammer. He’s outsourced the process of detective work to his horde of little online gumshoes. But the ability to exercise violence on anyone spotted is still reserved to his friendly officers corpse.
::sigh::
This is a bad ruling; Hawai’i is saying that their state laws and traditions take precedent over federal laws, the US constitution, and SCOTUS rulings. It’s intentionally trying to undermine the concept of the rule of law in order to get the result that they want. That’s not a “devastating rebuke”, it’s a toddler screaming about not getting candy in the supermarket.
This is counter to the concept of the rule of law, and should be seen as an embarrassment, not something to celebrate.
That’s not a “devastating rebuke”, it’s a toddler screaming about not getting candy in the supermarket.
It appears Hawai’i is parroting decisions by redder states, in an effort to force the SCOTUS to rule broadly on the question of Supremacy (or, at least, try and split the baby in some coherent way).
This is counter to the concept of the rule of law
Its counter to the concept of Federalism, but right in line with the Seperatist theory of law that quite a few modern day politicians happily espouse when it suits them.
