BOISE, ID - Attorney General Raúl Labrador led a coalition of states to a major Second Amendment win today at the United States Supreme Court in Wolford v. Lopez. In a 6-3 decision, the Court struck down Hawaii's law, known colloquially as the "Vampire Rule," which barred concealed carry permit holders from entering private property open to the public with a firearm without first obtaining the owner's express permission. Violating the law was a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in prison. The Court held that while private property owners may restrict firearm possession on their own property, the state itself cannot impose that restriction as the default rule for everyone.

"States do not have the discretion to decide which constitutional rights their citizens may exercise," said Attorney General Labrador. "The Second Amendment puts explicit restrictions on government itself. Constitutional rights are not a menu from which states may select only the options they find politically convenient."

California, New York, New Jersey, and Maryland have similar "Vampire Rule" laws restricting concealed carry on private property open to the public. Today's decision will be the controlling precedent for legal challenges to those laws going forward.

Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the majority, stated plainly: "This regime hobbles what the Second Amendment protects: the right of Americans to carry arms for self-defense as they go about their daily lives. We hold that the law is unconstitutional."

Justice Amy Coney Barrett, in a concurring opinion, wrote: "[A] majority's opposition to a constitutional right is not a permissible basis for restricting it. After all, '[t]he very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy' and 'to place them beyond the reach of majorities and officials.'"

Attorney General Labrador, along with Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, led a coalition of state attorneys general in filing an amicus brief supporting petitioner Jason Wolford in this case.

Read the Supreme Court opinion here.

AG Labrador Leads Coalition Urging Supreme Court to Strike Down Hawaii's Unconstitutional Public Carry Ban

RAUL LABRADOR AND AUSTIN KNUDSEN: 2nd Amendment Doesn't End At State Lines