Calvin Say Residency Challenge Not Over Yet
Six Palolo voters ask the Hawaii state House to investigate the representative’s qualifications and expel him for failing to live in his district.
The six聽Palolo voters challenging Calvin Say’s qualifications to hold office are not giving up, despite a court’s rejection of their lawsuit last week.
A Circuit Court judge ruled on Sept. 30 that it is the legislative branch, and聽not the judicial, that has jurisdiction over such matters.
In response,聽the plaintiffs in Hussey v. Say today聽renewed their request to the House of Representatives “to investigate and expel Say from the House for his failure to live in his district.”
That’s according to a press release from Lance Collins, the attorney for Ramona Hussey.
State Reps. Calvin Say and Sylvia Luke.
Chad Blair/Civil Beat
“Because the House now vigorously asserts it has sole jurisdiction to determine the residency qualifications of its members, these voters demand that the House take up their request made over eighteen months ago,” said Collins.
Speaker Joe Souki previously denied the request, saying聽that residency determinations are for the courts. Asked today for comment on taking the mater back to the House, Souki told Civil Beat through a spokeswoman, “We received Lance鈥檚 letter this morning and it鈥檚 being reviewed.”
Last April, the Intermediate Court of Appeals unanimously reversed Judge Karen Nakasone’s holding that the First Circuit Court had jurisdiction to hear the聽case.
In July, the House intervened in the case, arguing聽that it had sole jurisdiction to determine residency qualifications of its members.
Say is a former House speaker who has represented Palolo Valley and surrounding neighborhoods since 1976.
