The Hawaii Supreme Court handed down a unanimous opinion on Wednesday declaring that its state constitution grants individuals absolutely no right to keep and bear arms outside the context of military service. Its decision rejected the U.S. Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Second Amendment, refusing to interpolate SCOTUS’ shoddy historical analysis into Hawaii law. Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern discussed the ruling on this week’s Slate Plus segment of Amicus; their conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
I… Don’t think that’s really the case. I don’t think anti-2A states like HI and CA are trying to delegitimize the Supremacy Clause, I think they truly believe that they’re on the right side of history when they’re undermining civil rights. OTOH, I would agree 100% that Texas for instance is trying to undermine the supremacy clause and force a gov’t showdown.
…Which, if Biden is smart, he will avoid doing until and if he wins the election. I would bet a lot of money that Abbot has engineered this to be an election year stunt, esp. since senate Republicans torpedoed their own deal on immigration reform. If Biden goes after Abbot before the election–even though precedent is clearly on his side–he energizes the far right. If he does it the day after he wins the election–regardless of whether he becomes a lame duck or not–then Republicans don’t get to use that.