The Hawaii Supreme Court has denied a petition by a citizen coalition challenging state political maps drawn by the Reapportionment Commission and ordered that candidate qualification can now begin for the state legislative and U.S. House seats that were on hold.
The order, issued at 9:44 a.m., showed two of the five justices, Associate Justice Sabrina McKenna and Associate Justice Michael Wilson, dissenting. Chief Justice Mark Recktenwald and Associate Justices Todd Eddins and Paula Nakayama were the majority.
The order came just hours after a 2 p.m. hearing Tuesday afternoon.
The petition had asked the Supreme Court to declare the political maps invalid and direct that the state withdraw them and draw new ones. The court had put a temporary hold on candidate qualifying for state legislative offices and federal House races until it could consider the petition.
See Thursday’s edition of the Tribune-Herald for more.