Report Title:

Constitutional Amendment; Cockfighting

Description:

Amends the constitution to guarantee a right to engage in the traditional cultural practice of fighting gamecocks.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.B. NO.	3284
TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2008
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

proposing an amendment to the hawaii constitution to protect the traditional CULTURAL practice of fighting gamecocks.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

     SECTION 1.  The purpose of this Act is to propose an amendment to the Constitution of the State of Hawaii to establish the right to engage in the traditional cultural practice of fighting gamecocks.

     SECTION 2.  Article XII, section 7, of the Constitution of the State of Hawaii is amended to read as follows:

"TRADITIONAL AND CUSTOMARY RIGHTS

Section 7.  The State reaffirms and shall protect all rights, customarily and traditionally exercised for subsistence, cultural and religious purposes and possessed by ahupua'a tenants who are descendants of native Hawaiians who inhabited the Hawaiian Islands prior to 1778, subject to the right of the State to regulate such rights.  The right to engage in the traditional cultural practice of fighting gamecocks shall not be infringed."

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

"Shall the constitution be amended to guarantee a right to engage in the traditional cultural practice of fighting gamecocks?"

     SECTION 4.  New constitutional material is underscored.

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

INTRODUCED BY:

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