Wolford v. Lopez · ¶112

It is beyond me why Hawaii would claim that these vile laws can justify its present-day restriction. We can put aside the question whether they are legitimate evidence of the Second Amendment’s scope, post, at 30–32 (opinion of JACKSON, J.), because regardless, they do not help Hawaii. The State seems to think Bruen is a matching game: Southern States enacted broad default rules, Hawaii reasons, so it can do the same today. But even if Hawaii is right that the how is analogous, it also must identify an analogous why. The Black Codes were enacted to subordinate newly freed slaves. Hawaii obviously does not contend that its law promotes an analogous interest. So its law and the default rules in the Black Codes are not “‘relevantly similar.’” Bruen, 597 U. S., at 29. Most would take that as a compliment.

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