The Hawaii Supreme Court is not happy, and they are letting everyone know it. After getting shut down by the US Supreme Court over their bizarre "spirit of aloha" gun control arguments, the state’s top judges launched a massive, bitter attack on the federal judiciary in a recent ruling.
Let’s talk about the "spirit of aloha"
Not long ago, the Hawaii Supreme Court came up with a really weird way to interpret their state constitution. In a gun case called Wilson v. Hawaii, they basically said that under the spirit of aloha, you do not get to defend yourself with a firearm. They literally argued that carrying guns in public does not fit the traditional lifestyle of the islands.
Well, that did not sit too well with the US Supreme Court. In a later case, Woollard v. Lopez, which knocked down Hawaii’s strict limits on carrying guns in public, the high court openly mocked the state’s reasoning. The Supreme Court pointed out that federal rights do not bend to local vibes. The Second Amendment has the same meaning in Hawaii as it does in New York or Chicago, and it absolutely does not "give way to the spirit of aloha."
Needless to say, the judges in Hawaii got their feelings hurt.
A 15-page meltdown in a random case
Instead of taking their loss quietly, the Hawaii Supreme Court decided to lash out. They used a completely unrelated criminal case, Granillo v. State of Hawaii, to write a long, bitter essay complaining about the current US Supreme Court.
They openly declared that they were "untethered" from the Supreme Court’s analysis. Basically, they are trying to find any loophole they can to ignore the Second Amendment. This is not how our legal system is supposed to work. When the highest court in the land makes a ruling, state courts are supposed to fall in line. Instead, these judges are acting like angry bloggers.
Citing Dred Scott? Really?
To make matters worse, Hawaii’s justices tried to attack the idea of interpreting the Constitution based on its original meaning. But they did it in the most embarrassing way possible. They actually cited Dred Scott—the infamous pre-Civil War pro-slavery case—to make originalism look bad.
It is a total strawman argument. We look at the original intent of the Constitution every single day, and nobody complains about it. We do it when we hold presidential elections every four years, and we do it when we seat senators for six-year terms. But suddenly, when it comes to gun rights, the Hawaii court thinks originalism is some evil, outdated tool.
The hypocrisy is off the charts
What makes this whole tantrum so funny is how inconsistent the Hawaii court is. They claim to care about individual liberties and democracy, but their actual positions show the exact opposite.
| What Hawaii’s Judges Say | The Reality |
|---|---|
| The US Supreme Court is "shrinking individual rights." | Hawaii’s own court tried to shrink the Second Amendment down to absolute zero. |
| The federal court is taking away "democratic decision-making." | The Hawaii court is furious about the Dobbs decision, which actually gave abortion laws back to the voters. |
| We should not be tethered to historical constitutional meanings. | They have no problem following the historical structures of the Senate, Presidency, or Judiciary. |
At the end of the day, these judges are just mad because they got called out. They tried to use the "spirit of aloha" to wipe out a fundamental American right, and they got spanked for it on the national stage. Instead of doing their jobs, they are writing angry op-eds masquerading as legal opinions. It is embarrassing, and gun owners in Hawaii deserve better.
Lance Rankin is the owner and Chief Gunsmith of Western Sport, a family-run Type 07 FFL and Class 3/SOT dealer in Roanoke, Texas, serving shooters since 2007. Born and raised in Texas with over 50 years of experience handling firearms, Lance purchased Western Sport in 2017 and turned his lifelong passion into his profession. He specializes in AR-15 and AR-10 platform rifles, manufactures Western Sport’s own AR-15 line under the Rankin Industries brand, and runs the shop’s in-house Cerakote coating operation. When he’s not behind the counter or the workbench, you’ll find him on his ranch deep into the night, hunting coyotes with an AR-15 and thermal optics. Lance holds an MBA and personally shoots and tests the products Western Sport sells.
