Requires that any challenge to a proposed amendment to the State Constitution be promptly filed with and decided by the Hawaii Supreme Court by: (1) requiring such a challenge to be filed within 30 days after the adoption of the proposed amendment by the Legislature or the adjournment of a constitutional convention; and (2) requiring a decision on such a challenge within 30 days of the filing.

A BILL FOR AN ACT

SECTION 1. The purpose of this Act is to propose an amendment to article XVII of the Constitution of the State of Hawaii to require that any challenge to a proposed amendment to the State Constitution be promptly filed with and decided by the Hawaii Supreme Court by (1) requiring such a challenge to be filed within thirty days after the adoption of the proposed amendment by the Legislature or the adjournment of a constitutional convention and (2) by requiring a decision on such a challenge within thirty days of the filing.

The supreme court of the State of Hawaii on September 1, 2005, in Taomae v. Lingle, 108 Haw. 245, invalidated a constitutional amendment proposed by the legislature during the regular session of 2004. The supreme court for the first time interpreted the phrase, "in the manner required for legislation," as it appears in section 3 of article XVII of the State Constitution and concluded that the constitutional amendment was not properly proposed by the legislature and that the constitutional amendment should not have been presented to the voters in the general election of 2004. Unfortunately, the Hawaii supreme court's invalidation of the constitutional amendment occurred ten months after the voters, by 65.6 percent of the votes cast, approved the constitutional amendment. The legislature finds that it is in the public's interest to avoid the time and expense incurred in submitting amendments to the voters that are subsequently challenged, and instead to provide a process to expeditiously resolve challenges to proposed constitutional amendments before they are submitted to the voters for ratification.

SECTION 2. Article XVII of the Constitution of the State of Hawaii is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"CHALLENGES TO AMENDMENTS

Section . Any challenge to an amendment to the constitution, whether founded upon the procedures utilized to propose the amendment, or the language or wording of the proposed amendment, or the language or wording of the question to be printed on the ballot, or the program of voter education developed by a convention, or any other cause, must be brought within thirty days after the adoption of the amendment by the legislature, or the adjournment of the constitutional convention, or be barred. Any challenge must be brought as an original proceeding in the supreme court, and must be decided by the supreme court within thirty days of when it is filed.

An amendment shall be valid unless the supreme court determines otherwise in the original proceeding.

The provisions of this section shall not apply to an election contest challenging the result of the vote on an amendment and setting forth a cause or causes including provable fraud, overages, or underages that could have caused a difference in the election result."

SECTION 3. The question to be printed on the ballot shall be as follows:

SECTION 4. New constitutional material is underscored.

SECTION 5. This amendment shall take effect upon compliance with section 3 of article XVII of the Constitution of the State of Hawaii.