Legal matters of maritime concern in Hawaii, Oceania, and beyond.
And, in the Third Circuit, the contract wins.
Among the arcane provisions of the U.S. Constitution is the tonnage clause which prohibits the states from laying "any Duty of Tonnage" without the consent of Congress. Roughly translated, states and local governments cannot tax cargo.
So, if a municipal landowner leases land to a private company…
October 1st and the Supreme Court just granted hearing in several cases. Of note, to this humble island attorney, is the case of Puerto Rico v. Valle. Those pesky Insular Cases….(my posts here and here).
This case arises from a criminal prosecution in Puerto Rico. A criminal defendant was convicted of federal…
The case is Paeste v. Government of Guam and the opinion can be found here.
The Ninth Circuit struck down a challenge to the constitutionality of the Jones Act or Merchant Marine Act of 1920. The case was Novak v. United States and the opinion can be found here.
The litigated component of the Jones Act (rest easy merchant mariners, you didn't lose your worker compensation causes of action)…
The Ninth Circuit rejected a challenge to California's Shark Fin Law, Cal. Fish & Game Code § 2021(b) which makes it "unlawful for any person to possess, sell, offer for sale, trade, or distribute a shark fin" in the state. The case is Chinatown Neighborhood Ass'n v. Harris and the opinion can be found here…
The ABA Section of Litigation announced a free roundtable to discuss Cotenancy clauses after a recent decision by a California appeals court, Grand Prospect Partners, LP v. Ross Dress for Less. You can find the link for registration here.
Cotenancy clauses in retail leases are common provisions that allow a tenant to…
Geography matters, but so do governments. If you live in a place that flies the American flag, should you be entitled to all of the privileges that are shared by all the residents of lands where that flag is flown?
No, says the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Citizenship belongs to those…
Ah, the bloggers's dream: juxtaposing DC Showdown with Fisheries Law in the title of your post.
On a more serious note, domestic fisheries are a $5B component of our national economy with certainly more impact locally in those ports where fish are landed.
The governing statute which sets out federal regulation of fisheries is the…
As a random quirk of our law practice, we have done some work with the Hawaii Campaign Spending Commission. Not surprisingly, the Commission's laws and regulations were challenged after the Citizen's United case and today, we have the Ninth Circuit's take on Hawaii's election laws in light of Citizen's United. It upheld Hawaii's election laws…
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser had a front page story today on a bill passed by the Legislature proposing an amendment to Hawaii's Uniform Information Practices Act, Hawaii Revised Statutes Ch. 92F.
The bill, H.B. 287, underwent re-writes throughout the session. The version that passed, and is awaiting Governor signature or veto, is:
…
