Sunday, November 24, 2024
Hawai'i Free Press

Current Articles | Archives

Wednesday, October 23, 2013
UPDATE: Hawaii Reapportionment Case Presented to US Supreme Court
By Robert Thomas @ 7:09 PM :: 8215 Views :: Military, Office of Elections

UPDATE New Deadline Dec 12, 2013: AG Louie Requests 1 Month Delay, Supreme Court grants

SCOTUS Jurisdictional Statement In Hawaii Reapportionment Case: Circuit Split On Who To Include In The Body Politic; Canoe District Deviations Too Large

by Robert Thomas, InverseCondemnation.com  October 8, 2013

Today, on behalf of the people challenging the 2012 Hawaii Reapportionment Plan for excluding military personnel, their families, and out-of-state students from Hawaii's population, we filed this Jurisdictional Statement, arguing that there are substantial questions meriting the U.S. Supreme Court's full consideration in our appeal of a three-judge U.S. District Court decision upholding the Plan.

We won't go into the details of the argument, but here's the short story, and earlier briefs.

Here are the Questions Presented, which should give you a flavor of the issues:

1.  Equal representation. At the direction of the Hawaii Supreme Court, the 2011 Hawaii Reapportionment Commission (Commission) determined that 108,767 residents—nearly 8% of Hawaii’s Census-counted population—were not "permanent residents," and thus could be excluded from Hawaii’s body politic because they did not intend to remain permanently: (1) active duty military personnel who indicated on a federal form that another state should withhold taxes, (2) their spouses and children, and (3) students who did not qualify for in-state tuition. The Commission acknowledged those whom it "extracted" were not counted anywhere else, and that they were not represented equally in Hawaii. The District Court refused to apply close constitutional scrutiny, and concluded Hawaii’s "permanent resident" population basis was a rational means of protecting other residents’ voting power, which superseded the extracted classes' right to equal representation. The Commission counted others who could not intend to remain permanently (e.g., undocumented aliens), or whose inclusion diluted voting power because they were not qualified to vote (prisoners, minors). The first question presented:

Does the Equal Protection Clause’s requirement of substantial population equality mandate that representational equality take precedence over voting power as held by the Ninth Circuit, or is the choice of whom to count left entirely to political processes, as held by the Fourth and Fifth Circuits and the District Court, and has Hawaii appropriately defined and uniformly applied "permanent residents" to deny the extracted persons equal representation?

2.  Extreme deviations. The Commission recognized that with overall deviations of 44.22% in the Senate and 21.57% in the House of Representatives—the product of Hawaii’s prohibition of "canoe districts" (districts spanning more than a single county)—the 2012 Reapportionment Plan was presumptively discriminatory. This Court has never upheld a reapportionment plan with deviations in excess of 16%, which "may well approach tolerable limits." The District Court accepted these substantial departures from population equality because Hawaii is geographically and culturally different. The second question presented:

Is Hawaii’s prohibition on legislators representing people in more than one county a "substantial and compelling" justification rendering the 44.22% and 21.57% deviations "minor," or are these deviations too large to be constitutionally acceptable?

The State now has a few weeks to respond or to move to dismiss. Stay tuned, folks.

Jurisdictional Statement, Kostick v. Nago, No. ___ (filed Oct. 8, 2013)

Links

TEXT "follow HawaiiFreePress" to 40404

Register to Vote

2aHawaii

Aloha Pregnancy Care Center

AntiPlanner

Antonio Gramsci Reading List

A Place for Women in Waipio

Ballotpedia Hawaii

Broken Trust

Build More Hawaiian Homes Working Group

Christian Homeschoolers of Hawaii

Cliff Slater's Second Opinion

DVids Hawaii

FIRE

Fix Oahu!

Frontline: The Fixers

Genetic Literacy Project

Grassroot Institute

Habele.org

Hawaii Aquarium Fish Report

Hawaii Aviation Preservation Society

Hawaii Catholic TV

Hawaii Christian Coalition

Hawaii Cigar Association

Hawaii ConCon Info

Hawaii Debt Clock

Hawaii Defense Foundation

Hawaii Family Forum

Hawaii Farmers and Ranchers United

Hawaii Farmer's Daughter

Hawaii Federation of Republican Women

Hawaii History Blog

Hawaii Jihadi Trial

Hawaii Legal News

Hawaii Legal Short-Term Rental Alliance

Hawaii Matters

Hawaii Military History

Hawaii's Partnership for Appropriate & Compassionate Care

Hawaii Public Charter School Network

Hawaii Rifle Association

Hawaii Shippers Council

Hawaii Together

HiFiCo

Hiram Fong Papers

Homeschool Legal Defense Hawaii

Honolulu Navy League

Honolulu Traffic

House Minority Blog

Imua TMT

Inouye-Kwock, NYT 1992

Inside the Nature Conservancy

Inverse Condemnation

July 4 in Hawaii

Land and Power in Hawaii

Lessons in Firearm Education

Lingle Years

Managed Care Matters -- Hawaii

MentalIllnessPolicy.org

Missile Defense Advocacy

MIS Veterans Hawaii

NAMI Hawaii

Natatorium.org

National Parents Org Hawaii

NFIB Hawaii News

NRA-ILA Hawaii

Obookiah

OHA Lies

Opt Out Today

Patients Rights Council Hawaii

Practical Policy Institute of Hawaii

Pritchett Cartoons

Pro-GMO Hawaii

RailRipoff.com

Rental by Owner Awareness Assn

Research Institute for Hawaii USA

Rick Hamada Show

RJ Rummel

School Choice in Hawaii

SenatorFong.com

Talking Tax

Tax Foundation of Hawaii

The Real Hanabusa

Time Out Honolulu

Trustee Akina KWO Columns

Waagey.org

West Maui Taxpayers Association

What Natalie Thinks

Whole Life Hawaii