Emergency rules regarding nighttime usage of Mauna Kea were invalidated after a Third Circuit Court ruling Friday in Hilo.
A partial motion for summary judgment was granted in a lawsuit filed by the Honolulu-based Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation on behalf of E. Kalani Flores. Parties typically seek summary judgments when they wish to resolve a case without it going to trial.
In a statement posted on the legal corporation’s Facebook page, attorney David Kauila Kopper said “the Court recognized that the State did not follow the rule of law in creating these emergency rules. The State can no longer arrest innocent people who are on Mauna Kea at night for cultural or spiritual reasons.”
The regulations, written by the state Board of Land and Natural Resources, were set to last 120 days after being signed into effect by Gov. David Ige on July 14, shortly after construction of the $1.4 billion Thirty-Meter Telescope halted for the second time this year when a group of protesters who oppose the telescope project blocked Mauna Kea Access Road.
“It’s good to have some justice, some sense of justice from the state,” TMT opponent Lakea Trask told the Tribune-Herald on Saturday. The consensus among those involved in the protest is “pretty happy, pretty relieved,” he said.
The group, composed of Native Hawaiian cultural practitioners, has been on the mountain since April.
In a joint statement released Friday evening, Attorney General Doug Chin and land board chairwoman Suzanne Case said the state acknowledged the decision and “will abide by it.”
“We remind people traveling to Mauna Kea that even in light of today’s ruling, existing laws and rules remain,” the statement said. “It is always illegal to block the road. This includes standing in the road or placing obstructions in the road. These laws will continue to be enforced.”
The Department of Land and Natural Resources issued a news release Saturday stating that camping in forest reserves and public hunting areas without a permit “remains illegal under Hawaii Administrative Rules.”
The state land board had voted to put the 120-day emergency rules into effect by a 5-2 vote during a July 10 meeting, after taking more than eight hours of testimony from the public.
The rules prohibited being within a mile of Mauna Kea Access Road between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m., unless in a moving vehicle. They also banned sleeping bags, camp stoves, tents and propane burners on the mountain at all times.
“For us, personally, the justice that we’re getting from this is it’s something that — we’re relieved and we’re surprised, actually,” Trask said. “We felt like we’ve kind of been persecuted throughout this whole ordeal.”
Since mid-July, there have been 15 people arrested and six cited for being on Mauna Kea during the restricted hours.
In September, the Department of Land and Natural Resources removed tents that had been set up near the access road.
“We felt like we couldn’t be Hawaiians in our most sacred area,” Trask said. “It takes the pressure off us being there in the restricted hours. Stargazers can stargaze again, so there’s some benefits to the whole public, not just the practitioners.”
Email Ivy Ashe at iashe@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
