Subject: Re: Hawaii takes on Citizens United
I don't see how this will survive the inevitable legal challenge

That’s the whole point of the law. Yes, it’s going to lose in district court because of Citizens. It will be appealed and lose in appellate court as well. Probably. Hawaii is in the Ninth Circuit, a fairly liberal court. So seeing the law upheld on appeal is not out of the question, although that outcome is quite unlikely.

No matter what happens on appeal, it will almost certainly be appealed to the USSC. And that is the point. The supporters of the law are trying to overturn Citizens. The way to do that is to take issue back to the USSC and convince the justices to change their mind.

Certainly a difficult task, but that is the path the Hawaii legislature has chosen.

—Peter