New Article Published: "Because They Can: Judicially Excising the People from the Definition of 'County' in the Hawaii Constitution"

The ABA Section on State & Local Government has published my article "Because They Can: Judicially Excising the People from the Definition of “County” in the Hawaii Constitution" in the State & Local Government Law News (Spring 2008). 

The article is a summary and analysis of County of Kauai ex rel. Nakazawa v. Baptiste, 165 P.3d 916 (Haw. 2007), the 3-2 decision in which the Hawaii Supreme Court creatively overcame justiciability problems to hold that the term "the counties" in the Hawaii Constitution's provisions regarding property taxes means "county councils."  In doing so, the court invalidated a voter-enacted Kauai charter amendment that would have rolled back property taxes to 1998 levels, and set a yearly cap on increases.  The dissenting justices accused the majority of "subverting the judicial process," and would have dismissed the case for lack of standing. 

The article is posted on the ABA's web site here.  For those of you who are not section members and don't receive a copy in the mail, the article is reposted here.  More on the case, including the majority and dissenting opinions, a Wall St. Journal story about the decision, and the briefs and oral arguments, is posted here.