Act 17, Act 68 violate federal housing rules

HUD notifies Hawaii about problems with Act 17, Act 68 - Pacific Business News (Honolulu)

HUD’s Office of Community Planning and Development, said in a statement that Act 17 of 2009 and Act 68 of 2010 put into place “preferences in violation of HUD procurement regulations.” Act 68 requires that local residents make up 80 percent of the work force on public construction projects. Act 17 gives preference to bidders who have apprenticeship programs. Both acts became laws when the state legislature overrode Gov. Linda Lingle’s vetoes.

Online appellate filing starts Monday

State Appellate e-filing becomes mandatory on September 27th for all attorneys. Familiarize yourself with the new Hawaii Rules of Appellate Procedure regarding e-filing here. a

New law blog

From that veritable blog wellspring, Damon Key Leong Kupchak Hastert (inversecondemnation.com, Hawaiioceanlaw.com, Insurance Law Hawaii) comes attorney Rebecca A. Copeland's Record on Appeal which promises to discuss "– among other topics – recent cases, appellate procedure, and appellate advocacy skills."

For the defense bar

WSJ Law Blog - Shining a New Light on False Confessions

According to records compiled by Brandon Garrett, a law professor at UVA, since 1976, more than 40 people have given confessions that DNA evidence later showed were false. Among the 40: mentally disabled people and young people. But also among the 40 were a more surprising group: those who simply caved to police-interrogation pressure.

The research shows how people who were uninvolved in a crime still could provide detailed accounts of what occurred. Mostly, this happened through “contamination,” a process, Schwartz, explains, by which incriminating facts got introduced to a defendants, either intentionally or unintentionally, though the interrogation process.

To defense lawyers, the new research is eye opening. “In the past, if somebody confessed, that was the end,” said Peter J. Neufeld, a founder of the Innocence Project, an organization based in Manhattan. “You couldn’t imagine going forward.”

Fifth Circuit: Repubs can field candidate to oppose Morita

This has been an entertaining series of political events to watch unfold. David Hamman, the Republican poised to file papers for the District 7 Senate seat Gary Hooser was assumed to be vacating to run for lieutenant governor, waited until Hooser's last-second resignation to file. Then, instead of filing for the Senate race - or rather, before filing for the Senate race - Hamman instead filed for the House District 14 race against the until then unopposed representative Mina Morita. Hamman then withdrew from the District 14 House race and filed for the District 7 Senate race as originally planned. His intent was to buy an extra three days for the Republicans to field a candidate to oppose Mirita in the House race. Indeed, Harry Williams used that extra time to file his papers and join the race against Morita. Morita was furious and the Democrats sued. According to today's Garden Island, the Fifth Circuit "said the Republican Party of Hawai‘i followed the rules which allowed them to select Williams to replace David Hamman after Hamman filed for, then withdrew from, the race as a Republican candidate for the state House seat held for 14 years by state Rep. Mina Morita..."

It's interesting to see the candidates' very different blog reactions to the events. Morita has a couple of posts and Hamman has a somewhat lengthy one as well.

Update: The merits -

According to the Garden Island, the plaintiff's (or movants? - I haven't looked at the court file and am relying entirely on newspaper and candidate blog reports) "allege[ ] in the lawsuit that Hamman did not sign a certification as a partisan candidate, plus an oath of loyalty or an affirmation, [when 'temporarily' filing for the House race] according to Morita."

“Which in my opinion makes his documents null and void,” said attorney Harold Bronstein, representing [chair of the Democratic Party of Kaua‘i] Steven Nishimura, according to yesterday's GI. "[B]ut because Deputy County Clerk Eddie Topenio signed and accepted the papers, Hamman became an official candidate, [Fifth Circuit Judge] Valenciano said."

Happy birthday to Inversecondemnation.com

...which started its fifth year yesterday. Here's to many more.

Attorney Michael Nauyokas defends Bar's black box judicial review process

...in the StarAdvertiser. I'm not convinced by his argument, but here it is.