By deciding not to hear Nansay Hawaii Inc.'s case concerning its proposed 450-acre Kohanaiki resort on the Kona Coast, the high court left standing lower court rulings that native Hawaiians have a right to be heard when access is threatened by land development.
Nansay asked the high court to take it up on the grounds that the rulings could permit what amounted to a taking of private property without due process.
"This decision by the U.S. Supreme Court today rejects that theory," said Denise Antolini, managing attorney for the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, who represents a native Hawaiian group called Public Access Shoreline Hawaii in the case.
"The Hawaii Supreme Court said that traditional and customary rights of native Hawaiians must be accommodated when development threatens those rights," she said. At the same time, native Hawaiians must show that they do indeed have those rights and if granted they must use them in a reasonable manner, she said.
Nansay officials did not return calls this morning. After today's action, it is up to the Big Island planning commission to hear the Nansay case again and let the Hawaiians be heard. The commission earlier approved Nansay's application but it was overturned in court.
PASH argued that development would threaten the traditional gathering of shrimp from brackish ponds along the shoreline of the proposed resort.