▪ Superferry EIS Appeal: Hawaii Supreme Court Briefs

Here are the briefs of the parties in the "Hawaii Superferry EIS" appeal, decided by the Supreme Court of Hawaii last week.  These should clear up any questions about what the litigation is about, and what the parties argued. 

• Opening Brief of Plaintiffs-Appellants [Sierra Club, Maui Tomorrow, Kahului Harbor Coalition] (filed Oct. 21, 2005) (2 mb pdf)

• Defendants-Appellees Hawaii Superferry, Inc. and the State of Hawaii's Answering Brief (filed Dec 27, 2005) (1.2 mb pdf)

• Reply Brief of Appellants (filed Jan. 20, 2006) (650 kb pdf)

Update: Charley Foster at Planet Kauai has posted a succinct summary of the briefs and the legal arguments, and included some thoughts about the future:

The question left wide open – and that will definitely find its way back into the courts – is what will be the scope of an environmental assessment. The state and Superferry will argue that it ought to be limited to the harbor improvements that brought the project within state environmental legislation in the first place. The plaintiff groups will argue that, once the requirements of the law are triggered by the harbor improvements, then everything about the ferry’s operation ought to be examined for its environmental impact.

Well worth reading his whole post.