9th Cir: Restricting Voting To People Of Northern Marianas Descent Is Race-Based Voting Limitation
Here’s the Ninth Circuit’s opinion in a election law case we’ve been following, Davis v. Commonwealth Election Comm’n, No. 14-16090 (Dec. 27, 2016). The issue in the case is whether limiting voting on certain constitutional amendments in the...
Peak Posner At The 7th Circuit: Cab Companies Were Chumps To Rely On A Govt Monopoly To Protect Them From Competition
Here are two cases about a topic that’s been getting a lot of traction lately in legal circles: how to deal with the so-called sharing economy. You know, things like Uber, Lyft, Air BnB, and … DogVacay. [Sidebar: that last one reminds of us Jack...
Quo Warranto Fu: Does County Environmental Manager’s Law Degree Qualify As “Engineering … or related?”
We love quo warranto cases. Not just because “if it ain’t Latin, it ain’t the law’ (as one of our favorite law school profs informed us), but because they are yet another means for citizens to challenge those holding and exercising power....
In The Bluest Of Blue States, 9th Circuit Rebuffs (For Now) Attempt To Bar Republican Voters From The Only Election That Matters
You may call us anti-Holmesian, but we’re wary of any judicial opinion that has “clear and present danger” as its standard of review. Like “shouting fire in a crowded theater,” this legal meme gives more heat than light in our estimation,...
Hawaii Supreme Court Refuses to Create A Moratorium While “Important Ag Lands” Process Completes
In a ruling that no one who was paying attention could claim to be surprised by, the Hawaii Supreme Court yesterday issued a 4-1 memorandum opinion holding that the “agricultural lands” section of the Hawaii Constitution isn’t self-executing, and...
Hawaii Federal Court: Get Ready For Trial On Lucas And Penn Central Takings Claims
As we noted here (“Latest On The Latest Hawaii Takings Case: Unconstitutional Conditions, Statutes Of Limitations, And Vested Rights”) the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii is considering a regulatory takings case (removed by the defendant...
Lawsuits Have Consequences: Aloha To Hawaii Sugar
When people think of “Hawaii,” many of them, me included, think of sugar. Those of us of a certain vintage who were raised in the islands, and whose families were tied to the sugar plantations once so ubiquitous (my mother’s family was from the...
More SCOTUS Action In Oprah/Everyone Wins Election
Here’s your daily dose of election law action (don’t worry, land users, we’ve got one of those in the hopper for today as well), the latest on what has been labeled the “Costco” election and the “Oprah” election. The former...
Justice Kennedy Temporarily Halts “Hawaiians Only” Election (Analysis from Robert Thomas)
The latest news in a fast-moving election law case, about the validity of a Hawaiians-only election to choose delegates to a constitutional convention about the issue of Hawaiian national sovereignty: this morning, Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy issued this...
Robert H. Thomas is a director with Damon Key Leong Kupchak Hastert in Honolulu, Hawaii. He is also the Managing Attorney for the Pacific Legal Foundation’s Hawaii Center and a Grassroot Institute Scholar.