Supreme Court won't hear case over Hawaii's licensing rules for handguns

Washington — The Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up a Hawaii man's appeal of his prosecution for carrying a handgun without a license, leaving untouched a state supreme court decision that castigated its new framework for determining whether gun laws comport with the Second Amendment.

Justice Clarence Thomas, in a statement joined by Justice Samuel Alito, criticized the Hawaiian court for its ruling, but said the high court was right to dismiss the challenge on technical grounds. However, he 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."

The court laid out the so-called "history and tradition" standard in a landmark Second Amendment decision in June 2022. The test requires the government to show that a gun law is consistent with the nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation.