Hawaii's top court is weighing whether two elephants at the Honolulu Zoo have legal rights against being wrongly confined, a case that could reshape how courts treat intelligent animals in captivity.

• Lawyers for animal rights advocates argue the zoo's 40- and 51-year-old elephants, Vaigai and Mari, are self-aware and autonomous and deserve a hearing on whether their confinement is illegal or cruel.
• The city's attorneys countered that other courts have rejected this legal theory and that existing animal welfare rules already protect zoo animals.
• Justices pushed back on where such a ruling would stop, asking whether octopuses, reptiles, insects, or even hypothetical intelligent aliens could later claim the same rights.
• The justices noted the court has expanded legal rights before, for same-sex couples and in environmental cases, and tied the debate to Hawaiian cultural views that treat living things as relatives.
• If the elephants' advocates win, the animals would be entitled to a hearing on their confinement, not an automatic release.

Outlook: A ruling isn't expected soon, but however the court decides, it could set a precedent for how other states handle legal rights claims for animals.