Archive for May, 2010

THE STATE OF HAWAII’S PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO THE AKAKA BILL ON SOVEREIGN IMMUNITY by Charles Wilkinson, Distinguished University Professor, Moses Lasky Professor of Law, University of Colorado

Posted by ohadc on May 27th, 2010 under Akaka Bill 2009  •  Comments Off

Excerpt: “…March 23, 2010, Governor Lingle sent a letter to United States Senators expressing her strong opposition to H.R. 2314, the most recent version of the Akaka Bill, which passed in the House of Representatives in February. The House-passed bill reflected the outcome of negotiations among the Obama administration, the Hawaii congressional delegation, and [...]

05/12/10 Today the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) posts, “Inherent Sovereignty, Sovereign Immunity and the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act, ” to increase community understanding of inherent sovereignty and sovereign immunity in relation to the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act, also known as the “Akaka bill.” Two key points include: 1) All governments in the United States, Federal, State, Local and Native governments – receive their basic inherent sovereignty from the people. The inherent sovereignty of Native governments is derived from the people – sovereignty is not conferred upon Native governments by the Federal government. 2) Native sovereignty, like the sovereignty of our state and Federal governments, includes sovereign immunity – the right of the people’s government to be protected from legal action in carrying out its government functions. Governments may waive their sovereign immunity for specific purposes, but the Supreme Court has held that a waiver of sovereign immunity must be clear and unequivocally expressed. OHA heard some ask for information to better understand these concepts, and the attached OHA paper was prepared to meet this community request.

Posted by ohadc on May 12th, 2010 under Akaka Bill 2009  •  Comments Off

OHA NHGRA Inherent Sovereignty paper

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