On May 22, a 3-judge U.S. District Court in Hawaii issued a 55-page ruling in Kostick v Nago, 1:12-cv-184. The panel denied injunctive relief to a group of voters who had sued to alter the redistricting plan for state legislative districts. The Hawaii Constitution says redistricting should be based on permanent residents, so the state had altered the Census Data to exclude students and military who seem not to consider Hawaii their permanent residence.
The decision says that the issues are complex, but that no injunction postponing the primary and ordering a new set of districts will be granted. The decision says the lawsuit should have been filed earlier, and points out that if relief were granted, the August primary would need to be postponed. The three judges did not say which one of them wrote the opinion. The three are M. Margaret McKeown of the 9th circuit, and U.S. District Court Judges J. Michael Seabright and Leslie E. Kobayashi.
Census data asks people about their “usual residence”, which means “the place where a person lives and sleeps most of the time” and “is not necessarily the same as the person’s voting residence or legal residence.” The decision does acknowledge that “Hawaii elected officials still represent temporary residents – it is a fundamental Constitutional principle that elected officials represent all the people in their districts, including those who do nor or cannot vote.” The excluded groups include about 8% of the population of Hawaii.