Supreme Court rejects challenge to Hawaii gun licensing rules — for now
The Supreme Court declined to intervene or overturn a Hawaii State Supreme Court decision that allowed the state to prosecute a man carrying a loaded pistol without a license.
Justices Clarence Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito criticized the Hawaii court’s ruling, but supported the U.S. Supreme Court’s move on technical grounds. Thomas wrote that the court should hear an “appropriate” case to “make clear that Americans are always free to invoke the Second Amendment as a defense against unconstitutional firearms-licensing schemes.”
In 2017, Christopher Wilson was hiking in the West Maui Mountains when he was stopped by the property owner, turned over to the police, and informed he was trespassing. While speaking with the police, Wilson informed them that he was carrying a loaded pistol. After his arrest, the state of Hawaii brought criminal charges against him for carrying a handgun without a license.
In 2022, after the Supreme Court issued a broad gun-rights decision, Wilson again challenged the gun charge, claiming that under the Supreme Court’s decision, carrying a firearm for self-defense was protected by the Second Amendment right to bear arms.
The trial court dismissed the charges, but Hawaii’s Supreme Court, in a scathing decision, reversed, criticizing the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decisions—decisions that the state court said show “how the court handpicks history to make its own rules.”
But Wilson countered that the state court was making its own rules by refusing to abide by Supreme Court precedent.
Thomas, writing Monday, said: “Had the Hawaii Supreme Court followed its duty to consider the merits of Wilson’s defense, the licensing scheme’s unconstitutionality should have been apparent.”
He noted that Wilson could ask the Supreme Court to review the case again — a view echoed by Justice Neil Gorsuch.
2 private lunar landers head toward the moon in a roundabout journey
In a two-for-one moonshot, SpaceX launched a pair of lunar landers Wednesday for U.S. and Japanese companies looking to jumpstart business on Earth's dusty sidekick.
Biden moves to lift state sponsor of terrorism designation for Cuba
President Biden notified Congress of his intent to lift the U.S. label of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism as part of a deal aided by the Catholic Church to free political prisoners on the island.
Dozens of survivors and dead pulled from abandoned South African mine
The mine has been the scene of a tense standoff between police and miners since authorities launched an operation to force the miners out by cutting off food and water from the surface.
South Korean law enforcement officers detain impeached President Yoon
Yoon was brought into custody about three hours after hundreds of law enforcement officers entered the residential compound in their second attempt to detain him over his imposition of martial law last month.
SEC sues Elon Musk, says he didn’t disclose Twitter ownership on time before purchase
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission says Musk failed to disclose his ownership of Twitter stock in a timely manner before buying the site and underpaid by $150 million for shares he bought.
No such thing as a free toilet: Starbucks reverses open bathroom policy
The new guideline is a reversal of a 2018 open-door policy that was implemented after two Black men, who had not ordered anything, were arrested at a Philadelphia store.
