Email Peter Sur at psur@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
By PETER SUR
Tribune-Herald staff writer
The Hawaii Supreme Court has struck down as unconstitutional the state’s final reapportionment plan, a decision that will likely grant the Big Island a fourth Senate seat and possibly an eighth House seat.
In a two-page order filed Wednesday afternoon, the high court unanimously declared the plan filed by the state Reapportionment Commission “constitutionally invalid” because it did not count only permanent residents for reapportionment purposes.
The plan “disregards this constitutional mandate” and instead included nonpermanent residents in the population base that the commission used to allocate legislative seats among the islands, the court said.
As a result, the commission was ordered to prepare and file a new reapportionment plan according to the process laid out in the Hawaii Constitution. The court also ordered the elections office to rescind the publication of the final reapportionment plan for the state Legislature.
The attorney general’s office had attorneys on both sides of this argument. One deputy, Russell Suzuki, represented the Reapportionment Commission. The other, Charleen Aina, represented Gov. Neil Abercrombie, who more or less sided with the petitioners.
“We’re pleased that the court acted quickly,” said Joshua Wisch, spokesman for the Office of the Attorney General. He said the next step would depend on what actions are prescribed in the court’s opinion, which has not yet been issued.
The order came a few hours after both sides argued before the high court Wednesday morning.
Justices heard arguments from attorneys Mike Matsukawa and Stan Roehrig in favor of overturning the plan. Roehrig argued on behalf of Big Island Democrats Sen. Malama Solomon, Louie Hao, Steve Pavao and Patti Cook.
Roehrig and Matsukawa argued that the commission overstepped its bounds when it voted to count most of the state’s nonresident military and students.
Suzuki argued the commission interpreted the state constitution as best it could to determine the correct allocation of seats in the state House and Senate.
Later Wednesday, Roehrig said that the decision means the Big Island probably gains a Senate seat. He couldn’t say that with certainty because the Supreme Court’s opinion has not been rendered and the revised final plan has not taken shape.
The commission had voted by 5-3 on Sept. 19 to remove 16,458 out-of-state students and on-base military in determining the population. The petitioners in the case charged that number was too low. They argued that for political reasons, Oahu-based commissioners tried to keep a Senate seat from migrating to the Big Island by holding the number of nonresidents that would be discounted to below 20,000.
“The comments from the justices suggested to me that they all seemed to agree that” more than 16,000 students and nonresident military would have to be discounted, Roehrig said.
Based on his own calculations, Roehrig said, the actual number should be around 120,000.
Roehrig said removing 20,094 nonpermanent residents from the population count would give the Big Island a fourth Senate seat; removing 107,000 would also give the island an eighth House seat.
The bulk of the discounted population is on Oahu, because of its numerous military bases and the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
The Supreme Court’s remedy tossed out the Reapportionment Commission’s procedure for allocating members of the Legislature and mandated a two-step procedure, as the petitioners had requested. In the two-step process, commissioners need to allocate the members of the Legislature among the “basic island units,” which correspond with the four counties, by using the permanent resident population base. Then, the commission must draw the district lines to ensure equal representation.
The Big Island is gaining legislative clout because its population soared 24.5 percent between 2000 and 2010, a rate that far outpaced all other islands.
The state Reapportionment Commission’s process is separate from the county Redistricting Commission, which sets the boundaries of the Hawaii County Council districts.
Email Peter Sur at psur@hawaiitribune-herald.com.