While looking through the disclosures filed by Honolulu’s mayoral candidates, I wondered what would turn up if someone dug around in court records looking for my name.

So I logged on to the state and federal court computer systems, and entered my name in the search field.

I’m very proud of the series of legal cases that were returned.

The search in Hawaii court records didn’t turn up any traffic violations or legal issues, just a short list of civil lawsuits.

I’ll start with the oldest case, Neil Abercrombie v. The Senate, filed in April 1983. That was my first legislative session as director of Common Cause Hawaii, and I was a co-plaintiff with dissident state senators who filed suit over the right to inspect the budget worksheets. The lead named plaintiff was Neil Abercrobie, who later served ten terms in the U.S. House of Representatives before being elected governor. Although the lawsuit was declared moot, it led to internal changes in the Senate which resulted in far more public access to the budget documents.

The following year, I was a co-plaintiff with Common Cause in a suit against the Campaign Spending Commission over an interpretation of the campaign laws that would have gutted public disclosure of campaign contributions. After the lawsuit was filed, the commission reversed course and adopted the position Common Cause had advocated.

Then in 1991 I was sued by then-Honolulu Mayor Frank Fasi for suggesting during a television news interview that patterns of large contributions from special interest groups, such as those to Fasi’s campaign, created the appearance of corruption. Fasi soon dropped the case, reportedly under pressure from others in his party.

In 2003, I was sued by Eric Aaron Lighter, and accused con-man who alleged he was defamed by a story published while I was writing for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. As I recall, the lawsuit was never actually served and was later dismissed. In December 2011, following a two-week trial, a federal jury in Northern California took just one day to find Lighter guilty of all 17 charges he faced, including multiple counts of conspiracy, wire fraud, witness tampering, and blackmail.

At the time the next case was filed in 2004, I was president of the Century Center Condominium board of directors. The condo association sued an apartment owner over a series of violations of the building’s declaration and bylaws which had created continuing problems. During that same time period, the owner, an attorney and former state judge, opened a nightclub in a penthouse apartment in violation of usage rules, but I don’t recall if that had been the trigger for this suit. Court records show the court approved the injunction sought by the AOAO and awarded $18,455.39 in attorney fees.

Then, over in federal court, this appears in the index of the Pacer online system.

This 1992 case challenged the constitutionality of a broad confidentiality requirement that applied to complaints filed with the state Campaign Spending Commission. At the time, I was publishing a monthly newsletter about money and politics in Hawaii, and a dispute had arisen over my right to publish information about a complaint I had filed with the commission. The case, Lind v. Grimmertx, resulted in the confidentiality provision being declared unconstitutional, a decision that was upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The state filed an appeal with the Supreme Court, which declined to consider it. The case had been widely cited in later 1st Amendment decisions.

I was also the lead plaintiff, along with the American Friends Service Committee, in a 1980 Freedom of Information lawsuit seeking public disclosure of several specific documents concerning prior U.S. Navy accidents involving nuclear weapons. The case dragged on for years, finally resulting in the release of 125 pages of records, including summaries that included the number of accidents, general types of accidents, and their causes. The court ruled we had substantially prevailed and order the Navy to pay $15,682.50 in attorney fees and costs.

Whew. I hadn’t thought about those legal cases in a long time. Quite an interesting slice of history.