DOJ Files Historic Supreme Court Brief in Support of Second Amendment 

by Cam Edwards, Bearing Arms, Nov 25, 2025 

In a historic first, the Department of Justice has filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court in a Second Amendment case that sides with plaintiffs challenging a gun control law. 

The DOJ's brief in Wolford v. Lopez, filed with the Supreme Court on Monday, argues that Hawaii's law prohibiting lawful concealed carry by default on all private property effectively negates the right to keep and bear arms. As the Justice Department notes, before the Supreme Court struck down "may issue" carry regimes in Bruen, it was virtually impossible to obtain a license in Hawaii. Once the state was forced to adopt a "shall issue" standard, lawmakers decided to make it virtually impossible to exercise your right to carry by banning guns on all private property, including property open to the public, unless property owners provide “[u]nambiguous written or verbal authorization” or post “clear and conspicuous signage” allowing firearms.

In Hawaii, public-carry licensees who stop for gas with a pistol in the glove compartment risk a year in prison if they fail to obtain the gas-station owner’s unambiguous consent. The same goes for licensees who run errands at grocery stores, dine at restaurants, or stop to buy coffee. A mere nod from the property owner—or an insufficiently conspicuous sign—puts license holders at risk of prosecution even if the owner welcomes firearms but failed to express his approbation clearly enough. Meanwhile, Hawaii exempts non-licensees from this restriction—so hunters, target shooters, and out-of-state police officers can publicly carry firearms on the same property without the owner’s affirmative consent.

... Hawaii designed its novel affirmative consent rule to inhibit the exercise of the right to bear arms. Hawaii’s restriction singles out the carrying of firearms for discriminatory treatment; requires owners who have opened their property to the public to satisfy a special clear-statement rule for firearms; and contains exemptions that make sense only if Hawaii were trying to limit arms-bearing to favored groups and to exclude everyone else. Further, Hawaii’s law is so broad that it effectively nullifies licenses to carry arms in public. Because most owners do not post signs either allowing or forbidding guns—and because it is virtually impossible to go about publicly without setting foot on private property open to the public—Hawaii’s law functions as a near-total ban on public carry.

The DOJ's brief is thorough and well-written, and it's great to see the DOJ side with gun owners in trying to strike down a flagrant infringement on a fundamental civil right. 

The brief doesn't exist in a vacuum ... the DOJ continues to take some confounding positions in other 2A cases challenging federal gun control laws....

read … DOJ Files Historic Supreme Court Brief in Support of Second Amendment – Bearing Arms

PDF: 20251124 USDOJ Brief - Wolford v. Lopez.pdf

B: Exclusive: 27 States Urge SCOTUS to Strike Down Hawaii Carry Ban

AL: DOJ Files Amicus Brief In Hawaii Concealed Carry Case

FOX: DOJ calls Hawaii gun law 'blatantly unconstitutional' in SCOTUS brief | Fox News