When a statute or ordinance states that an agency “shall” do something, but because of practical limitations or longstanding practice the agency does something else, what will a court do about it?
Leslie v. Board of Appeals, County of Hawaii, 109 Haw. 384, 126 P.3d 1071 (Jan. 25, 2006) involved the meaning of the word “shall” in statutes and regulations and how statutory language may or may not be affected by how the government implements the law. The decision also involved the meaning of the term “development within the SMA” as used in Hawaii’s Coastal Zone Management Act.