The Volokh Conspiracy

Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent

About The Volokh Conspiracy Editorial Independence Who we are Books Volokh Daily Email Archives Search DMCA RSS

Is The Hawaii Supreme Court's "Aloha Spirit" Consistent With A Republican Form Of Government?

The Hawaii Supreme Court argued the 50th state's history was inconsistent with the Second Amendment. Perhaps the Constitution is inconsistent with the "Aloha Spirit."

Josh Blackman | 7.19.2026 12:13 AM

Hawaii was admitted as the 50th state in 1959. The experience of the Hawaiian people was very, very different from the experience of the people in the other 49 states. The United States of America was established by overthrowing a monarch in 1776. Hawaii remained under the control of a monarch until 1893. During the Nineteenth Century, as the American states and territories lived with a right to keep and bear arms, Hawaii had no such protection. Justice Jackson recounts this history in her Wolford dissent:

Since its time as a sovereign kingdom, Hawaii has never permitted the widespread carrying of firearms in its territory. In 1833, King Kamehameha III of the Kingdom of Hawaii prohibited the possession of "dangerous weapon[s]." Translation of the Constitution and Laws of the Hawaiian Islands, Established in the Reign of Kamehameha III 163 (1842) (reprint 1934) (targeting possession of any "knife, sword-cane, or any other dangerous weapon"). Hawaii maintained this tradition of strictly regulating weapons both before and after it was annexed as a U. S. territory in 1898.

There was an........

© Reason.com