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Election denial denied: The Hawaii Elections Office dodged another bullet last week when the Hawaii Supreme Court tossed the latest lawsuit filed by Karl With A K Dicks, a frequent challenger of state election practices who is also running for Honolulu mayor this year.

Dicks was arguing that primary election ballots are unconstitutional and in violation of several state laws because the state requires voters to select a political preference in order to vote. He wanted the court to order the Hawaii Office of Elections to design a ballot that conforms to the law, as Dicks interprets of the Hawaii Constitution. It addresses registration and voting.

He also cited several sections of Hawaii Revised Statutes regarding elections to bolster his case.

The lead defendant in the case, Chief Election Officer Scott Nago, pushed to have the matter dismissed, in part because the primary hasn’t yet happened and therefore there are no election results to challenge. Nago also argued that Dicks failed to actually state a claim.

The court agreed with all that. Plus, he can only challenge the ballot in the race he’s in — mayor — not every race in the state, the justices said.

Dicks, whose email moniker is Karl with a K, has a recent and extensive history of challenging Nago and his office. He has also run for office before, most recently in 2022, where he lost the Republican primary for a state Senate seat.

Here’s the Hawaii Supreme Court opinion for those of you interested in the political play-by-play:

The meaning of life: Speaking of lawsuits getting tossed, The Sunshine Blog was more than a little bit sorry to see that the lawsuit seeking to force dozens of colleges and universities to establish an undergraduate degree program in Immortality was rejected by two federal judges, including Hawaii U.S. District Court Judge Derrick Watson.

You can read The Blog’s previous write-up on the local case (against University of Hawaii et al) here. It followed the filing of a similar lawsuit against 41 esteemed institutions of higher education in New York.

In sum, a Texas company called Age Reversal Unity invoked “the immortal jellyfish” as “a pinnacle of evolutionary achievement and potential future for humanity.” The lawsuit argued that colleges must be forced to create the course of scientific study necessary to help society live forever and protect the right to life. Or something close to that.

Sadly, the person who filed the lawsuit on behalf of Age Reversal Unity, by the name of Ali Afshar, wasn’t an attorney and the judges did not go for a pro se status as hoped. And he didn’t pay the required filing fee either, although Judge Margaret Garnett of the Southern District of New York gave him a pass on that at first because Afshar said he was “in forma pauperis” which The Blog and Google take to mean he said he didn’t have the cash.

So both Garnett and Watson dismissed the cases and but Watson also said it could be filed again by a real attorney who can pay the filing fee. So hope springs eternal.

Meanwhile, Age Reversal Unity and presumably Ali Afshar sent The Blog a nice email last week thanking us for our previous coverage of the case and alerting us to the rulings.

“This is very unfortunate,” the email said. “I think Age Reversal Unity can be a pro se litigant as the law allows it.”

The Blog thought you might be interested in what else he had to say so here is most of the rest of the note, as copied and pasted:

“Some of the defendants have institute of aging and they have PHDs in their department and We think that launch a new program called bachelor degree in Immortality is needed and help our society to reach immortality and find the cure for aging. 

“Immortality is an industry just like AI, Pharma, Finance, Biotech, and others. If Finance, AI and others are undergraduate programs in Universities, Immortality should become an Undergraduate program as well. The Market Cap for Immortality is $0 but the market cap for longevity is $250 billion. For living longer, there is an industry called longevity. For not dying, there is a market called “Immortality”. Once the Immortality market reaches sales, humans start becoming immortal. 

“Immortality is about finding a cure for aging or a treatment for aging that stops death from aging. … If Universities do not care about curing for aging or immortality as much as they care about AI, and other industries, Humans will never become immortal anytime soon (not in our lifetime).

“Obviously, Immortality will happen in the future and Humans will be immortal but if we want it to happen in our lifetime, Universities should start launching a new program called “Bachelor Degree In Immortality”.”

Hmmm. Could happen. Just sayin’ …

Read the two rulings by Judge Garnett and Judge Watson:

Aloha for Kamala? Not so fast: Many Democrats nationally have quickly united behind Vice President Kamala Harris as their nominee to face Republican Donald Trump in the presidential election now that President Joe Biden has decided to end his campaign for reelection.

Last week the Democratic Party of Hawaii announced that local delegates initially pledged to Biden have officially pledged to support Harris at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next month. 

But it seems that local party divisions remain. Nearly one-third of voters in the Hawaii’s presidential preference vote earlier this year voted for “uncommitted” rather than Biden to protest the U.S. position on the war in Gaza.

Last week’s meeting, according to a press release, included “a productive dialogue” with the uncommitted delegates, who expressed their commitment to peace in the Middle East and an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

“The party is working together towards common goals,” the release states.

Candidates and cannabis: Twenty-four states, three U.S. territories and several countries including Canada have laws making cannabis legal for adult use. But the Hawaii Legislature killed two measures last session to move the state into greener pastures.

Now, the Hawaii Alliance for Cannabis Reform has put together to help voters learn where the candidates stand on legalization.

“The next legislature should pass a statute next year that creates quality jobs and economic growth opportunities in each county,” said Nikos Leverenz, board president of Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii, which is part of the coalition along with ACLU of Hawaii, the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, the Hawaii Innocence Project and others.