HIGH COURT REJECTS STATE OVERREACH AGAINST SUPPORT FOR NONPROFIT BACKING MAUNA KEA DEMONSTRATORS

HONOLULU, HAWAI‘I. The Hawai‘i Supreme Court further whittled down the state attorney general’s subpoena of bank records from a local nonprofit organization, KAHEA: The Hawaiian-Environmental Alliance, going beyond a lower court’s ruling that struck that subpoena in half.

The state said it issued the subpoena to investigate whether KAHEA’s use of its funds to support direct action on Mauna Kea is an “illegal purpose.” However, how KAHEA spends its monies is not tied to who donates to KAHEA. So, why did the state’s subpoena require disclosing deposit tickets and credit memos that indicate the source of funds? The Court held this element of the subpoena “doesn’t make sense” and struck it as unreasonable.

While declining to quash the entire subpoena as a violation of KAHEA’s constitutional rights, the Court affirmed, “KAHEA’s opposition to development on Mauna Kea falls squarely within the heartland of the First Amendment’s protections.” KAHEA has been a vocal advocate against allowing the proposed Thirty-Meter Telescope (TMT) to be constructed on Mauna Kea. Hawai‘i Supreme Court decisions in 2015 and 2019 addressed KAHEA’s appeals from the state Land Board concerning the TMT. The Court also noted, “KAHEA’s anti-TMT advocacy and opposition to the [state]’s client in appeals before this court show that the State AG may have had a motive for targeting KAHEA” and agreed a subpoena for extensive banking records is “an adverse action that would chill a person of ordinary firmness from exercising First Amendment rights.” Yet, the Court declined to go further, citing a lack of evidence of the state’s “retaliatory animus.”

Read the Court’s full opinion here: https://www.courts.state.hi.us/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/SCAP-20-0000110.pdf

Press Contact: Marti Townsend, marti.townsend@gmail.com, (808) 372-1314