Hawaii
Supreme Court takes up gun owners’ challenge to ‘Vampire Rules’
The Supreme Court is deciding whether Hawaii can require gun owners to get permission before carrying a concealed gun onto private property open to the public, such as a store.
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WASHINGTON – In the 1897 Gothic horror novel by Bram Stoker, Dracula couldn’t enter a room without being invited.
In a Supreme Court case the justices will hear on Jan. 20, gun rights advocates charge Hawaii and other states with creating “Vampire Rules,” laws requiring gun owners to get permission – verbally, in writing or through a posted sign − before carrying a concealed firearm onto private property that’s open to the public, such as a store.
The default presumption, they argue, should be that handguns are permitted on publicly open private property unless the owner explicitly bans them.
Their challenge – which the Trump administration took the unusual step of encouraging the Supreme Court to hear before waiting for the court to ask for the government’s views − won’t require the justices to delve into 19th-century literature. But it will necessitate a review of laws from the colonial and Reconstruction eras.
That’s because the Supreme Court, in a landmark 2022 decision, said gun regulations have to be consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation to be constitutional.
Supreme Court expanded gun rights
The court’s 6-3 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen also significantly expanded the Second Amendment right to bear arms outside the home.
After the court struck down New York’s law restricting who can carry a gun in public, Hawaii – and several other Democrat-led states – focused instead on where the guns could be brought.
The Trump administration urged the Supreme Court to get involved, arguing those states − Hawaii, California, Maryland, New York and New Jersey − are doing an end-run to avoid complying with the court’s 2022 ruling.
“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 Justice Department told the court in a filing.
Hawaii says its law, passed in 2023, upholds both the right to bear arms and a property owner’s right to keep out guns.
“The Legislature enacted this default rule in light of ample evidence that property owners in Hawai’i do not want people to carry guns onto their property without express consent,” the state’s attorneys said, in written arguments, about the state’s long tradition of restricting weapons, including before Hawaii became a state.
In 1833, for example, Hawaii’s king prohibited anyone from having a knife, sword cane or other dangerous weapon, Hawaii’s attorney general told the court.
Gun rights cases have increased
The challenge to Hawaii’s law is not the only gun rights case the Supreme Court will hear this term.
In March, the justices will debate whether a federal law that prohibits drug users from having a gun applies to a man who was not on drugs at the time of his arrest.
The justices are also deciding whether to take up challenges to state laws banning AR-15s and high-capacity magazines, and challenges to the federal ban on convicted felons owning guns.
Lawsuits over gun laws exploded after the court ruled, in the 2022 decision, that gun rules must be grounded in historical tradition.
Lower courts have struggled to apply that standard.
Lower courts were divided over Hawaii’s law
In the Hawaii challenge, the district court judge’s preliminary view was that the state’s law failed the test.
When Hawaii appealed, the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the state, ruling that its law is constitutional.
The appeals court pointed to several historical rules, particularly one from New Jersey in 1771 and another from Louisiana in 1865, both of which required a person have permission before carrying firearms onto private property. Those laws are “dead ringers” for Hawaii’s rules, the court said.
The three Maui residents and a state gun owners group challenging Hawaii’s rules argue that those statutes do not apply to the facts in this case. New Jersey’s law prevented poachers from hunting on private land closed to the public. And Louisiana’s law was aimed at keeping guns out of the hands of formerly enslaved people.
Because Hawaii also bans guns outright from some public areas, including beaches, parks, bars and restaurants serving alcohol − restrictions which the Supreme Court is not reviewing – gun owners are effectively banned from publicly carrying guns nearly everywhere, they argue.
Hawaii counters that to bring a gun into a shop or convenience store, for example, the gun owner must only ask an employee for permission.
“To be sure, the employee might say no, but that possibility cannot render the law unconstitutional because all agree that property owners have the right to exclude guns if they wish,” the state’s attorneys said in a filing.
Gun owners say they’re being treated like ‘monsters’
Gun rights groups say Hawaii’s law is motivated not by a desire to protect private property rights but because Hawaii wants to go after gun owners.
As in the novel “Dracula,” several gun rights groups wrote in a filing supporting the challenge, Hawaii is “treating those with carry permits as if they were monsters that must be warded off.”
In another brief, the National Association for Gun Rights said the state’s “Vampire Rule” requires store owners to take a public stand on a highly controversial issue.
“A business owner who supports the constitutional right to carry arms for self-defense faces a Hobson’s choice,” the group wrote. “He can make his views public and risk offending many of his would-be customers, or he can suppress his preference to allow people to exercise their right to carry on his property.”
‘Foundational to American identity’
Groups working to reduce gun violence worry that the conservative court may not just throw out Hawaii’s law but may do so in a way that tightens the historical tradition test it created for assessing gun laws. All of the justices except Justice Clarence Thomas − who authored the 2022 decision − clarified that standard in a 2024 decision that explained there doesn’t need to be an exact historical match to a modern-day rule to uphold that gun restriction.
That change, if the court sticks with it, allows Hawaii to argue that its law fits within the nation’s long history of regulating private property generally, said Billy Clark, an attorney at Giffords Law Center.
“States historically have always set default rules about the use of property,” Clark said. “That’s why you can’t just assume you can bring your dog with you to a restaurant.”
Douglas Letter, the chief legal officer for the Brady gun control advocacy group, called private property rights “foundational to American identity and embedded throughout our system of government.”
“It is absolutely clear,” he said, “that the wealthy, White men who created the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights, one of the major things that they had in mind was protecting property.”
A regular Hawaii flyer who reads BOH just put words to what longtime travelers are now seeing when booking flights. Fares have surged, planes are half empty, and the carrier that promised to break the monopoly just rolled out a loyalty program instead of keeping fares low.
Jim flies between islands often enough to know when something feels off. He told us he can afford to fly but is choosing not to, and maybe that says more than anything else right now. His focus was not on his own travel. He kept coming back to families and what it looks like when four people try to book a simple Hawaii flight from Honolulu and see totals pushing past $1,000 round trip for twenty-minute flights. He tied last week’s Hawaiian final integration by Alaska directly to the timing, with changes rushing in at once because something about the pricing suddenly felt less stable.
He did not soften it and said the Aloha spirit has been replaced by what he called a greedy eye for profit. Jim asked Alaska to explain what was happening, and he is not alone. He is just someone who said it clearly.
Fares up, planes not full, but the math no longer works for anyone.
Fuel is the obvious headline, but it does not completely explain what visitors and residents are seeing. The Middle East conflict pushed jet fuel to over $200 in a matter of weeks, hitting an industry where fuel now accounts for an unacceptably high percentage of operating expenses. US carriers largely folded that increase into base fares rather than as a separate charge, which helps explain some of the jump but not the entire pricing behavior now showing up on Hawaii interisland flights.
Federal Department of Transportation data covering the 12 months through August 2025 showed Southwest filling just 51.9% of its Hawaii flights between islands, while Hawaiian sat near 74% over that same period. That disparity has held for years now, and planes that are half full usually do not support higher fares because airlines lower prices to fill empty seats. That is how this business works when carriers actually compete.
We checked it ourselves this week. Lihue to Honolulu for meetings in June came back at about $230 round trip per person before any seat selection or other fees, and the flights were wide open on both Hawaiian/Alaska, and on Southwest across the day, with plenty of seats and seemingly no pressure on availability. High fares alongside empty inventory are telltale. This is not a capacity problem; it is a pricing decision.
Southwest came to Hawaii to break the monopoly then finally stopped trying.
Southwest entered Hawaii in 2019 with a simple pitch. Break the Hawaiian Airlines monopoly and keep fares honest. The $39 fare sales became the symbol of that promise, and people remember those numbers because they reset expectations overnight.
Those fares are gone. They did not just fade slowly; they stopped showing up. Southwest never got its Hawaii loads where it needed them, and even after cutting capacity twice in 2025 to shrink its operation, the planes stayed underfilled. Hawaiian held steady in the mid-70% range on the last count, while the competitive pressure that was supposed to keep prices in check no longer seems to matter.
Now both carriers are moving in the same direction on price, and fuel gave them a great reason to move together. No one needed to say anything publicly. The result is the same: the discount era has ended, and nothing valuable has replaced it on the fare side.
Airline points programs are not fare sales.
This week, Southwest expanded its Ohana Rewards program for Hawaii residents, and the pitch sounds familiar. Hawaii residents earn 1,000 points per one-way flight, awards starting at 4,000 points, two free checked bags, and a quarterly 10% discount code.
So two full-fare round-trip tickets earn one free one-way ticket. Is that a deal when the cost per flight is so much higher than it has been before? It asks residents to pay full price repeatedly to earn back a fraction of a trip, and for Hawaii visitors its even worse.
Southwest used to advertise fares that moved the market. Now it advertises points that require multiple paid trips to unlock a limited return. Hawaiian’s Huakai program runs essentially the same playbook on the other side. The headline is up to 20% off one neighbor island booking per quarter, but that’s only for holders of the old Hawaiian Airlines Mastercard. Regular members get 10%. The discount code applies to up to 6 companions on the same reservation. Perks sit atop high prices, with rules that make them hard to use.
When Southwest, which built its reputation on cheap fares to Hawaii, shifts to selling loyalty points, the signal is clear. The focus moved from filling seats with lower prices to holding prices high and offering rewards later, and reader Jim saw that shift when booking, before any press release explained it.
Residents bear the highest cost when flights to Hawaii become a luxury.
Mainland visitors experience it differently. If they book a direct flight to Maui, Kauai, or Kona and stay put, there is no impact. And that direct to neighbor island flight shift has been building for years as mainland carriers added more nonstop routes to Maui, the Big Island, and Kauai. Flying between the Hawaii islands is no longer a key part of many visitors’ itineraries.
The people left flying between islands are residents, and some visitors, those visiting multiple islands, and those going to see family, attend meetings, handle medical appointments, show up for events, or support kids playing sports and music across the islands. Many of these are not optional trips. There is no ferry, there is no road, and flying Southwest or Alaska is the only way.
When fares double and stay there, the choice becomes simple and hard at the same time. Pay it or do not go. Jim chose not to go because he could make that call, but many could not.
The group with the least flexibility is paying the highest prices, and the carriers serving that market have stopped competing on airfare. What they are offering is Hawaii resident loyalty programs of far less value than better airfares.
Jim said it plainly. That is not Aloha when, in a Hawaii flight market, the people who need the service most are the ones with the fewest options.
The shift arrived suddenly.
Two airlines that once competed hard on price are now moving together, and loyalty program enhancements are landing at the same time as clear airfare spikes. Fuel is the reason everyone can easily point to, but the alignment on pricing is the piece that people feel, and that we are writing about. Jim asked Alaska to explain itself, and he has not heard anything that answers his question.
What are you seeing when booking Hawaii flights now? Please tell us in the comments below.
Photo Credit of Waikiki from Diamond Head: © Beat of Hawaii.
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Forecast for Big Island Windward and Southeast
| Shores | Tonight | Saturday | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Surf | Surf | |||
| PM | AM | AM | PM | |
| North Facing | 1-3 | 1-3 | 1-3 | 1-3 |
| East Facing | 4-6 | 4-6 | 4-6 | 4-6 |
| South Facing | 2-4 | 2-4 | 2-4 | 2-4 |
| Weather | Mostly cloudy. Numerous showers. | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low Temperature | In the upper 60s. | ||||||
| Winds | Northeast winds 10 to 15 mph. | ||||||
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| Weather | Partly sunny. Numerous showers. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| High Temperature | In the upper 70s. | |||||
| Winds | East winds 10 to 15 mph. | |||||
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| Sunrise | 5:50 AM HST. | |||||
| Sunset | 6:44 PM HST. | |||||
Forecast for Big Island Leeward
| Shores | Tonight | Saturday | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Surf | Surf | |||
| PM | AM | AM | PM | |
| West Facing | 1-3 | 1-3 | 1-3 | 1-3 |
| South Facing | 2-4 | 2-4 | 2-4 | 2-4 |
| Weather | Partly sunny until 6 PM, then mostly clear. Isolated showers. |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low Temperature | Around 70. | ||||||||||
| Winds | Southwest winds around 5 mph, becoming northeast after midnight. |
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| Weather | Mostly sunny. Isolated showers. | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| High Temperature | In the lower 80s. | ||||||||
| Winds | South winds around 5 mph, becoming west in the afternoon. |
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| Sunrise | 5:54 AM HST. | ||||||||
| Sunset | 6:48 PM HST. | ||||||||
An incoming northwesterly swell will bring rising surf to north and west shores overnight, with surf peaking near advisory levels, before gradually easing through the weekend. Another, slightly smaller northwest swell is expected early next week, and another long-period northwest swell may arrive late next week. Surf along south facing showers will trend upwards over the weekend with the arrival of a long-period south-southwest swell. Surf along east facing shores will trend downward over the weekend as the trade winds weaken.
NORTH EAST
am pm
Surf: Minimal (ankle high or less) surf.
Conditions: Semi choppy with ESE winds 5-10mph in the morning increasing to 10-15mph in the afternoon.
NORTH WEST
am pm
Surf: Minimal (ankle high or less) surf.
Conditions: Clean in the morning with ESE winds less than 5mph. Bumpy/semi bumpy conditions for the afternoon with the winds shifting W 5-10mph.
WEST
am pm
Surf: Minimal (ankle high or less) surf.
Conditions: Light sideshore texture in the morning with NNW winds 5-10mph. Bumpy/semi bumpy conditions for the afternoon with the winds shifting to the WNW.
SOUTH EAST
am pm
Surf: Minimal (ankle high or less) surf.
Conditions: Sideshore texture/chop with NE winds 10-15mph.
Data Courtesy of NOAA.gov and SwellInfo.com
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – The Hawaiʻi State Senate and House of Representatives on Thursday approved House Bill No. 1800 CD1, the state’s supplemental budget bill for the fiscal biennium 2025-2027.
The measure was finalized in a joint conference committee after both chambers initially passed different versions. The bill will now be up for final reading in both chambers before heading to the Governor’s desk for his signature.
The appropriations are as follows:
General Fund
Fiscal Year 2026: $10.42 billion
Fiscal Year 2027: $10.63 billion
All Means of Financing
Fiscal Year 2026: $19.77 billion
Fiscal Year 2027: $20.31 billion
“This budget uses cost-saving measures to help keep our promise to address the high cost of living and deliver meaningful tax reform to Hawaii’s citizens, especially our working- and middle-class families. At the same time, we are strengthening the State’s resilience through responsible long-term investments that promote regional economic development and environmental stewardship,” said Senator Donovan M. Dela Cruz, Chair of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means (Senate District 17 – Portion of Mililani, Mililani Mauka, portion of Waipi‘o Acres, Launani Valley, Wahiawā, Whitmore Village).
“The CIP budget reflects our commitment to protecting health and safety, preserving and modernizing state facilities, and investing in the critical infrastructure and public assets our communities rely on. These investments also support affordable housing, strengthen education, and advance economic development that will help sustain thriving communities across Hawai‘i,” stated Senator Sharon Y. Moriwaki, Vice Chair of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means (Senate District 12 – Waikīkī, Ala Moana, Kaka‘ako, McCully).
“This budget reflects the House’s continued collaboration with the Administration and the Senate to take a balanced, responsible approach to preserving core government services and strengthening our safety net for Hawaiʻi’s residents—especially those who rely on these services as a lifeline,” said Representative Chris Todd, Chair of the House Committee on Finance (House District 3 – portions of Hilo, Keaukaha, Orchidlands Estate, Ainaloa, Hawaiian Acres, Fern Acres, and parts of Kurtistown and Kea‘au). “It prioritizes critical needs across housing, agriculture, natural resources, transportation, public safety, and economic development, setting a strong foundation as we respond to federal funding cuts that have impacted Hawaiʻi and required the state to urgently step up to support our residents.”
Copyright 2026 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.
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