Hawaiʻi Supreme Court

Court interpreters play a critical role in the Administration of Justice, said the state judiciary's equality and access coordinator Debie Tulang-De Silva.

Graduate students in the University of Hawaiʻi System now have a clearer path to unionizing. A recent decision from the state Supreme Court stated grad students can receive official recognition as state employees if one of three existing labor unions petition for them.

The court recently upheld a Land Use Commission decision that struck down overnight camping on agricultural land near Lahaina on Maui using a special permit process. The property is owned by Kauaula Land Company and leased to the Hoʻomoana Foundation.

The court upheld the Public Utilities Commission's decision to deny a power purchase agreement that Hū Honua, also known as Honua Ola Bioenergy, had reached with Hawaiian Electric on Hawaiʻi Island.

After Hawaiʻi's executive and legislative branches delivered their opening remarks, it was time for the judiciary. Hawaiʻi Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark E. Recktenwald delivered his State of the Judiciary address to a joint session of the state Legislature on Wednesday.

The court ruled that Alice Lee received a majority of the votes cast in the Maui County Council election in November. A group of plaintiffs, including her opponent, had filed a lawsuit to challenge the results after Lee claimed the Wailuku seat by 513 votes. HPR's Sabrina Bodon reports.

More than two-thirds of the Hawaiʻi House of Representatives have agreed to convene a special session to address a decision handed down earlier this month by the state Supreme Court.

With the 2022 legislative session a little more than a month away, watchdog groups will have their eye on lawmakers after the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court recently ruled the "gut and replace" process violates the state constitution.

The Hawaiʻi Supreme Court has ruled in favor of two government watchdog groups who sued to stop the Legislature’s use of “gut and replace” tactics on legislation. The court says lawmakers violated the state constitution when they stripped a bill of its original content and substituted it with something entirely different and afterward failed to hold a sufficient number of readings for the amended measure.

A new leadership program at the University of Hawai'i William S. Richardson School of Law aims to increase diversity, inclusion, and representation among Hawaiʻi’s legal professionals. This comes at a time when some have called for more diversity on Hawaiʻi’s courts. As HPR’s Kuʻuwehi Hiraishi reports, others maintain the lack of representation is a pipeline issue.