In a unanimous decision criticized by open government advocates, the U.S. Supreme Court this week said a Virginia law blocking non-residents from using the state’s freedom of information law does not violate the constitution. The decision in the case of McBurney v. Young, as well as other case documents (including various supporting briefs by transparency [...]
Tags: Freedom of Information
Veteran journalist Bob Jones took to Facebook to break the silence about the elephant in the room ignored in all the Merrie Monarch news coverage. Maybe you’ll disagree, but I’ve never been ok with Chinky Mahoe let right back into the Merrie Monarch after his conviction for sexual abuse of boys in his halau. He [...]
Tags:
Bart Dame, a Democratic Party activist who has monitored election law and election administration for years, offered this testimony to members of the Senate as they prepare to vote on SB 286. I’m reprinting it here in full. Aloha, I am writing to request you vote against SB286, Relating to Reapportionment. Here is the short [...]
Tags:
I was browsing cases in Honolulu’s U.S. District Court when I spotted a couple filed over the past several years by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that suggest the kinds of workplace harassment still faced by women. One lawsuit, filed in September 2012, alleged a sexually hostile environment for young women existed at the Panda [...]
Tags:
The State Attorney General expects that any ruling in a lawsuit challenging the state’s 2012 reapportionment plan will be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, and has received approval from the state procurement office to hire a law firm with experience in relevant constitutional law. The lawsuit, Kostick v Nago, is pending in U.S. District [...]
Tags:
The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday declined to review a decision holding parts of an Illinois law that prohibited citizens from recording on-duty police officers, and the decision holds special interest for two Hawaii journalists. MauiTime publisher Tommy Russo was arrested a week or so ago for videotaping a police traffic stop. And Big Island blogger [...]
Tags:
Yesterday’s federal indictment of two men for scamming UH out of $200,000 finally identified the identity of the prime mover behind the fraud. Marc Hubbard, a North Carolina resident, is accused of masterminding the scheme to cheat promoter Bob Peyton and the university by claiming links with Stevie Wonder’s management that he said would allow [...]
Tags:
I was reminded yesterday of a 1999 decision by the Hawaii Supreme Court in a libel suit against the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. The court ruled against the plaintiff and in favor of the Star-Bulletin, and the decision explains the factors behind the court’s decision, which may be relevant in assessing the chances of Ben Cayetano’s defamation [...]
Tags:
