Thursday, November 21, 2024
Hawai'i Free Press

Current Articles | Archives

Tuesday, June 2, 2015
Hawaii "Is Exception To Constitutional Law" In State Reapportionment
By Robert Thomas @ 9:31 PM :: 5966 Views :: Military, Office of Elections

Star-Advertiser: Hawaii "Is Exception To Constitutional Law" In State Reapportionment

by Robert Thomas, InverseCondemnation, June 2, 2015

Here's a recent piece from Richard Borreca, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser's political reporter, about the Texas reapportionment case recently set for full briefing and argument by the U.S. Supreme Court.

"In Hawaii, eligible voters count more than people" is behind a partial pay wall, but here's the key points in the event you are not a subscriber:

Hawaii has never counted the entire census-counted resident population for purposes of apportioning its state legislature. It has always relied on a method that somehow excludes active duty military and their families who reside in Hawaii from the reapportionment count. 

Hawaii is one of two states which does not base reapportionment on total census-counted population (Kansas being the other). 

When voter registration and participation was high in the years following statehood in 1959, Hawaii counted registered voters, which due to the high percentage of Hawaii residents who registered to vote, was an accurate approximation of what the Supreme Court in Burns labeled a "permissible population basis."

When voter registration and participation declined and could no longer be relied upon to approximate population, however, the Hawaii Constitution was amended to count "residents," a term not defined in the constitution.

The most recent reapportionment "extracted" 108,000 military, families, and university students from the census-counted resident population, to arrive at what the Reapportionment Commission determined was a count of Hawaii "residents."

Although we lost the latest reapportionment challenge to this approach, the Texas case may open up future Hawaii reapportionments to legal challenge if Hawaii persists in applying the same or similar standards.

Here's what the piece has to say:

"Back in 2011, local attorney Robert Thomas sued on behalf of then-state Rep. K. Mark Takai and others claiming the Hawaii interpretation violated the Equal Protection Clause in the U.S. Constitution. The real political questions were that if adding everyone who lived in Hawaii as compared to just registered voters would determine whether the Big Island would get another seat in the state Senate and if someone on Oahu would likely lose a seat in the reapportionment process."

"Hawaii is the only state other than Kansas that subtracts military and dependents from its state reapportionment numbers."

"'As a consequence of Hawaii not counting them, they end up without any representation in any state legislature,'" Thomas said in an interview last week."

"'We argued that the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, which protects all persons' rights to be treated equally, means that the state must start by counting all persons, and if it desires to exclude some people, then it has a high burden to justify those exclusions.'"

"Failing to do that, Thomas argued, leaves the reapportionment process up to "'political whims.'"

Stay tuned folks, this one is going to get interesting if this issue is your cup of tea.

---30---

POLITICO: Supreme Court justices assume we know how many Americans can vote. But we have no idea.

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