STATEMENT BY GOVERNOR LINGLE ON CEDED LANDS DEBATE
For Immediate Release: November 24, 2008
HONOLULU – Governor Linda Lingle spoke with reporters today regarding the pending lawsuit before the U.S. Supreme Court regarding the Hawai‘i State Supreme Courts’ decision about ceded lands in Hawai‘i. Watch the complete news conference on the Governor’s website at www.hawaii.gov/gov.
"I have always supported Native Hawaiians rights and will continue to do so. I have also supported the Akaka Bill and will continue to do so. But, Hawai'i's public trust lands were transferred to the State by United States Congress in trust for the benefit of all the people of Hawai'i, and, therefore, the State of Hawai'i has the right and the obligation to use those lands for the public purposes specified in the Admission Act and State law—for the benefit of all Hawai‘i’s citizens. That can include at times, selling or transferring the lands, such as what the Waihee Administration and the State Legislature sought to do to promote affordable housing on Maui.
I supported the appeal to the United States Supreme Court because I believe the Congress did not take from the State in 1993 the rights it gave the State in 1959. I believe the United States Supreme Court will agree and will confirm Hawai‘i’s rights granted to it in the Admission Act of 1959. As the Governor of all Hawai‘i's people, Native Hawaiian and non-Native Hawaiian alike, I could not in good conscience seek to withdraw our appeal to the United States Supreme Court and will not do so."
BACKGROUND/HISTORY
In 1959, the United States Congress, as a part of Hawai'i's Admission Act, transferred to the State of Hawai'i full title to approximately 1.2 million acres of land, to be held by the State as a public trust for the benefit of all the people of Hawai'i, for public purposes, including for the support of public schools, to provide for the development of home ownership, for the betterment of the conditions of native Hawaiians, and for other public purposes. Currently much of the University of Hawai‘i, many public schools, much of the Honolulu International Airport, and many other public buildings like Hilo Hospital sit on the public trust land.
The public trust land is sometimes known as the ceded lands. The public trust or ceded lands were previously the government and crown lands of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i, ceded to the United States when Hawai‘i became part of the United States, and then transferred to the State of Hawai‘i in 1959 at Statehood. These lands constitute almost all lands owned by the State.
The Congress also transferred to the State approximately 200,000 acres of land solely for the benefit of the native Hawaiians (land that had previously been set aside by the Congress in the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920). That land is under the control of the State Department of Hawaiian Homelands and is not involved in the current lawsuit.
The Admission Act, and later state legislation, gave the State the explicit right to sell or exchange public land for the public purposes specified in the Admission Act, like promoting home ownership and supporting the public schools.
In the late 1980s and 1990s, because of the demand for affordable housing, the State decided to help promote affordable housing on the Neighbor Islands. This was consistent not only with federal and state law, and with the State's practice since statehood, but consistent with good government. The State Legislature specifically sanctioned a project near Lāhaina on the Island of Maui, which would have involved the creation of thousands of new affordable homes.
In 1993, the Congress passed a Resolution apologizing to Native Hawaiians for, among other things, the United States' role in the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i 100 years before.
In a lawsuit filed shortly thereafter, OHA and several individuals sued the State, claiming the Apology Resolution had clouded the State's title to its public trust lands, and also claiming that the State did not hold good title to the public trust lands, and thus the State could not sell or transfer public land to third parties, even to help promote affordable housing (or for any other purpose permitted by the Admission Act and state law).
The Cayetano Administration vigorously defended the lawsuit, and in 2002, the State Circuit Court ruled in favor of the State. OHA and the individual plaintiffs appealed. In January 2008, the Hawai'i Supreme Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and against the State. The Court,
relying on the federal Apology Resolution, barred the State from transferring any of the public trust land to any third-party for any purpose, for an indefinite period of time, regardless of whether the purpose of the transfer was to promote a purpose specified in the Admission Act, like home ownership, or not. The Court cited the federal Apology Resolution in its decision more than 80 times.
The State appealed this case to the United States Supreme Court, asking that Court to hold that Congress did not, in the Apology Resolution, take from the State the rights it had explicitly granted Hawai'i in 1959.
The State has asked the United States Supreme Court to confirm that the Apology Resolution did not in any way change the legal landscape or cloud the State’s title to the public trust lands in any way. The State appealed both because it believed the Hawai‘i Court's decision was wrong and contrary to law, but also because the decision prevented the State from continuing to fully utilize the public trust lands for the benefit of all of Hawai‘i's citizens, including Native Hawaiians, pursuant to the authority the State had been specifically granted in the Admission Act and by State law. Twenty-nine other states joined Hawai‘i in asking the United States Supreme Court to hear the case.
In October 2008, the United States Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. Oral argument will likely be held in February or March 2009, and the Court will likely issue a decision by July 2009.
####
For more information, contact:
Mark Bennett
Attorney General
Tel: (808) 586-1282
Lenny Klompus
Senior Advisor – Communications
Tel: (808) 586-7708
