Live Blog of HAWSCT Superferry Oral Arguments (Dec. 18, 2008)

On Thursday, December 18, 2008, we live blogged the Hawaii Supreme Court oral arguments in "round 2" of the Hawaii Superferry case. The recording of the argument is posted here.  For background, the major briefs of the parties are here.

Comments

[Charley Foster]

In Robertson v Audubon Society, environmental groups sued to prevent logging in old growth forests. Congress passed legislation addressing the lawsuits by name. Supreme Court held it was a permissible change in law, not directing results under old law.

[Charley Foster]

Bulgo v. Maui County, 430 P.2d 321, 50 Hawai'i 51 (1967)), involved legislation that enabled Maui County to replace a member of the board of supervisors who had died after his election but before the start of the term.

As with Act 2, it was patently obvious that the legalisation was drafted to apply to the particular situation in Maui County. In fact, by its terms, the legislation could only ever apply to that one situation. Nevertheless, the court ruled that so long as the law is couched in general terms applying to a class rather than a particular (in this instance) county, then it was general legislation and therefore constitutional.

[Jesse]

So, according to Bulgo, it's ok to violate the intent of the law?

[Mauibrad]

Robert,

How do we get this Cover it Live to scroll down?

Brad

[Robert Thomas]

Brad,

I think I fixed it -- the scroll bar was covered up on the right side. Let me know if you don't see the scroll bar, or if there are other issues.

Robert