Candidate filing opens after court rejects challenge to redistricting

Candidate filing for congressional and state House of Representatives and Senate seats is now open, after the Hawaii Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a legal challenge to the new map for state legislative districts.

Every 10 years, Hawaii is tasked with redrawing electoral district maps for state and federal offices based on new U.S. census data. In late January the Reapportionment Commission in charge of redrawing the districts voted 8-1 to approve the new maps.

Any registered voter in the state can file a legal challenge to the redistricting within 40 days of the final maps being publicly posted if they think they don’t meet the requirements of the state Constitution.

Last month, 11 community members filed a petition with the state Supreme Court claiming the new map for state legislative districts failed to adhere to a constitutional requirement that House districts must be wholly contained within Senate districts when practicable. The provision is important to maintain a degree of continuity between the law- makers in both chambers who represent the same constituents

Thirty-five out of 51 House districts statewide were not contained within Senate districts.

On Feb. 24, the high court placed an injunction on candidate filing for the affected races, which was supposed to start March 1.

However, in a 3-2 vote Wednesday, the justices rejected the petition and lifted the injunction.

Chief Justice Mark E. Recktenwald and Justices Paula A. Nakayama and Todd W. Eddins comprised the majority in the ruling and Justices Sabrina S. McKenna and Michael D. Wilson dissented.

An official court opinion has not yet been published so the reasons for the ruling were not immediately known. However, in oral arguments Tuesday, it seemed to come down to semantics.

Attorney Mateo Caballero, representing the petitioners, argued that the Reapportionment Commission is required to incorporate as many House districts as possible into the Senate districts and would have to justify why it could not.

Deputy State Attorney General Lauren Chun argued the stipulation in the state Constitution to keep the House districts within the Senate districts “when practicable” was a guideline and not a mandate.

Nakayama asked Caballero whether “when practicable” could be considered mandatory.

“It should do these things, if practicable,” she said. “How do you get from this discretionary ability of the Reapportionment Commission to jump to it as a matter of law they didn’t comply with?”

Wilson questioned Chun about why so many of the House districts were not within the Senate districts.

“It’s not completely mandatory if it turns out that’s not practicable, but I guess the issue we’re coming down to is … what showed that it wasn’t practicable?” he said.

“There must be some facts that say that even though it’s practicable, they couldn’t do it. And they really deviated from this in a way,” Wilson said. “That’s pretty significant, right? Because we’re talking about 35 out of 51 … so what was the justification for that?”

Caballero declined to comment on Wednesday’s court decision until the formal opinion is issued.

Bill Hicks, one of the petitioners, expressed disappointment with the court ruling.

“It seemed clear to us that when there are constitutional criteria that say ‘when practicable’ House districts shall be fully wholly included within a senatorial district, that at a minimum there ought to be an attempt to adhere to the Constitution,” he said. “And to me, personally, it was very obvious that there was zero attempt to adhere to it.”

Hicks, who is also chairman of the Kailua Neighborhood Board, was active in the public-participation portion of the redistricting process, even offering his own proposed map, which gained wide community support despite not receiving an official hearing by the Reapportionment Commission. His map placed all 51 House districts wholly within Senate districts.

One of the reasons the commission listed as to why some of the House districts were not within Senate districts was because they were trying to keep communities with longstanding ties together.

Hicks said he would continue to advocate for fair reapportionment at the next redistricting in 2031, “God willing.”

“A lot of the decisions this term were made at the very, very beginning when there weren’t but about three people paying attention. If I’m alive and kicking, I’ll be paying attention,” he said.

The filing deadline for all candidates for federal, state and county elections is June 7. Hawaii’s primary election will be held Aug. 13 and the general election Nov. 8.