VICTORY FOR PUBLIC RECORDS TRANSPARENCY IN HAWAII

Government transparency at every level is critical in building and maintaining a free society, but for the past few years, the Native Hawaiian Roll Commission has refused to release to the public a copy of its controversial Native Hawaiian Roll (Kana’iolowalu), a voter list in which many native Hawaiians refused to participate. In an important victory for government transparency, Atlas Network partner the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii assisted in a lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch that resulted in the state court’s rejection of the Native Hawaiian Roll Commission’s refusal to honor open records requests, thereby allowing the release of its roll of names of 125,000 Hawaiians.
When the Hawaii established the commission in 2011 to create a registry of native Hawaiians, very few chose to register, so the commission artificially augmented its roll with three other lists held by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA), a step that many deemed controversial because the OHA has a goal of creating a sovereign Hawaiian government. The commission has since then refused to make its roll public despite a freedom of information request by Judicial Watch, even though Hawaii has an open records law aimed at ensuring the open formation and conduct of public policy in the name of transparency.
“With the release of the Roll, it will now be possible to answer concerns over the tens of thousands of names that have been placed on the list without the express permission of individuals,” Keli’i Akina, president of the Grassroot Institute said. “The fact stands that the vast majority of Hawaiians have chosen not to support the efforts of OHA and the Native Hawaiian Roll to create a sovereign government. Their voices can now be heard.”