Time period to assess Second Amendment rights may arise in Wolford argument.

Stephen Halbrook | 1.14.2026 9:16 PM

As the Supreme Court prepares for oral argument on Tuesday next week in Wolford v. Lopez, it should consider resolving the relevant time period for interpreting the scope of the Second Amendment.  The issue arises in contexts as diverse as the federal prohibitions on certain classes of people (see post here) and whether adults aged 18 to 20 have Second Amendment rights (see post here).  It is pertinent to the Wolford issue of Hawaii's default rule of no guns on private property open to the public without prior consent.

In New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, the Supreme Court rejected interest-balancing under the Second Amendment, instead requiring that laws that implicate the plain text of the Second Amendment be "consistent with this Nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation." In doing so, Bruen reiterated the Supreme Court's assurance, offered many times before, that rights applied to the states have the same scope when applied to the federal government. And it further stated that it had "generally assumed that the........

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