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Mauna Kea Telescope and the Faux Expansion of the Public Trust Doctrine

Abstract

In re Contested Case Hearing Re Conservation Dist. United States Application (CDUA) HA-3568 for the Thirty Meter Telescope at the Mauna Kea Sci. Reserve, a case decided in 2018 by the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court, found lands set aside in public trust for “native Hawaiians and the general public” to be lands set aside in trust for the people. Indigenous lands were taken from native Hawaiians, again, but this time, arguably, with judicial protection grounded in interpreted language of the Hawaiʻi Constitution.