Category Archives: Sunshine

Prior Hawai “gag orders” have been struck down as unconstitutional

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The past week, the Maui County Board of Ethics adopted a set of new rules, but quickly put one of them on hold pending further consideration after it was criticized as a “gag order.”

Civil Beat reported:

That provision bound the complainant to a confidentiality requirement forbidding that person or citizens group from disclosing the pending complaint’s existence or sharing details of it publicly. If the ethics board or staff found that confidentiality was violated, they could use that as grounds to dismiss the complaint without further investigation.

This isn’t the first time such a confidentiality clause has been at issue in Hawaii. Both the State Ethics Commission and the Campaign Spending Commission had the same kind of confidential clause written into law, rather than just as a rule. And violation of those laws carried potential criminal penalties.

Both were successfully challenged in federal court and found to be unconstitutional.
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Clergy members describe assaults by ICE agents at Illinois facility

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We were singing old protest hymns like “We shall not be moved.” We eventually changed it to “Even if they tear gas us, we shall not be moved.” We also sang “We shall not be moved,” in Spanish. This song is about standing up for justice in a metaphorical sense. We were not literally blocking anything and no one ever asked us to move. Nonetheless, we were continuously tear-gassed and had pepper balls launched at us.
The Rev. Dr. Beth Johnson
Minister at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Hinsdale

Federal court records provide a continuing flow of first-hand unfiltered information about the attacks on First Amendment rights by ICE agents. The documents below were filed in against the federal government by a group of reporters, journalism organization, and other who say they witnessed numerous incidents of escalating violence by federal agents in response to demonstrations outside the ICE detention center in Broadview, Illinois, twelve miles from downtown Chicago.

According to Politico:

The plaintiffs are urging the court to protect the First Amendment rights of protesters to peacefully demonstrate around the facility and of journalists to “observe, record, and report on the federal agents’ activities and the public’s demonstrations against them.”

The suit — which was filed by the newsroom Block Club Chicago, the Chicago Headline Club, local labor unions representing Chicago-area journalists and a group of individual journalist and protesters — lists specific incidents in which they say agents targeted the press, including instances where they allege six journalists were hit with either pepper balls or tear gas despite wearing visible press credentials.

They also list eight examples of protesters and residents who they said were harmed or injured by ICE officers’ “violent presence” — including a minister for a local Presbyterian Church who allegedly was struck by the pepper balls and sprayed with tear gas while trying to offer prayers to the crowd.

The 52-page complaint can be read for free online.

Among the exhibits filed in court are several declarations by members of the clergy representing different religious denominations which describe what they witnesses and, in some cases, assaults they suffered at the hands of armed federal agents.

I’ve combined several of these, which are posted below.

Have any public officials invested in Hawaiian Electric stock?

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A friend contacted me recently expressing interest in whether any legislators own stock in Hawaiian Electric that would create a financial conflict of interest if they participate in discussing or voting on any proposed bailout plan to aid the company.

Fair question. Do any legislators, or other public officials, have investments in Hawaiian Electric?

Luckily, there is a way to find out. But it is neither quick nor simple.

Financial disclosures

Public officials, including elected officials, appointed department heads and deputies, and members of a number of key boards and commissions, file financial disclosures with the State Ethics Commission every year. These are public records, and the information is available online.

The information required to be reported includes sources of income over $1,000 received by the person filing the report, as well as their spouse and any dependant children, real estate owned or transferred with the prior year, positions held in businesses or nonprofit organizations (“officership, directorship, trusteeship, or other fiduciary relationship”), as well as creditors and a couple of other types of financial information.

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Judge Alan Kay remembered

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I was very sorry to learn of the recent death of retired Federal Judge Alan C. Kay, who served from 1986 to 2000 before moving to senior status.

I remember Kay quite well as the author of a lengthy April 1993 opinion invalidating a state law limiting the disclosure of information about complaints filed with the Campaign Spending Commission. Kay ruled the law was a clear violation of First Amendment rights.

The law made it a criminal misdemeanor for “any person” to disclose information about a complaint unless the commission first found “probable cause” that a violation had occurred. A violation was punishable by up to a month in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.

Kay’s decision was a strong affirmation of the First Amendment and a rather scathing comment on the state’s defense of what he saw as a clearly unconstitutional law.

Here’s a short version of the story.

At that time, I was publishing a monthly newsletter, Hawaii Monitor. An article in the June 1992 issue described a complaint I had filed with the Campaign Spending Commission that accused the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly (UHPA), the union whch represents faculty in the UH system, of failing to properly disclose expenditures in support of Gov. John Waihee’s 1990 reelection bid (“Commission sets hearing on UHPA complaint/UH faculty union PAC belatedly reports cost of Waihee ad“).

That short article prompted UHPA to complain to the commission that I had violated the confidentiality provision of the law. In an attempt to head off further commission action, my lawsuit was filed asking for the law to be declared unconstitutional and an injunction issued to prevent its enforcement. I was represented by Honolulu attorney Clayton Ikei, who recently passed away.

• Read Judge Kay’s 1993 decision in the case of Lind v. Grimmer on Justia.com

Kay’s decision was upheld by the 9th Circuit Court in a decision still cited in First Amendment cases.

• Read the 9th Circuit Court’s decision filed July 22, 1994.