by Robert Thomas, InverseCondemnation.com

The week before last, the Hawaii Supreme Court unanimously invalidated the Reapportionment Commission's redistricting plan because the Commission included non-residents in the population base, and the Hawaii Constitution requires use of "the total number of permanent residents in each of the basic island units and computed by the method known as the method of equal proportions." (emphasis added). The court required the Commission to try again.

The Commission has now sought "clarification and/or reconsideration," first asking the court for more guidance on the method of "extracting" non-permanent residents from the population base and the procedure for preparing a new plan, and second arguing that the inability to separate resident and nonresident military personnel makes the court's requirement that the Commission do so unconstitutional under the equal protection clause. Motion at 10-11. The Commission notes that Alaksa and Kansas, when faced with similar difficulties avoided the constitutional problem by using the total U.S. Census population, or did not "extract" most military from the count.

More here, from Hawaii Reporter. (As the story notes, the motion was filed by a new team of deputies in the Attorney General's office, "because many members [of the Commission] do not believe the commission was fairly represented before the Hawaii Supreme Court either during oral arguments or in court filings.")

Respondents' Motion for Clarification and/or Reconsideration, Matsukawa v. State of Hawaii 2011 Reapportion...

UPDATE Jan 20: Supreme Court Rejects Motion to Reconsider Reapportionment Case

CB: the commission staff attorney ... filed the motion for reconsideration on the Commission's behalf. The motions were later rejected by the Supreme Court….

(Now the only hope is to go to federal court.  A federal court will force Hawaii to count everybody.)

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