Alito accuses Hawaii of relegating gun rights to 'second-class status'

Justice Samuel Alito said on Tuesday that the lawyer defending a Hawaii gun law, which requires gun owners to get permission to carry firearms on private property, is treating the Second Amendment as a constitutional right with “second-class status.”

The Supreme Court heard arguments on Tuesday in Wolford v. Lopez over a Hawaii law that preemptively bans concealed firearms on private property. The conservative majority of the high court appeared skeptical of the Aloha State’s arguments. Alito was one of multiple justices who renewed a claim that lawyers pushing to uphold sweeping gun laws treat the constitutional right to bear arms as less important than all other rights.