[ OUR OPINION ]

Feds shouldn’t meddle
in local religion dispute

THE ISSUE The Justice Department has threatened to sue Maui County for denying a zoning permit to a church to add a chapel to its existing structure.

BOTH sides in a dispute over a church's desire to build a chapel on agricultural land on Maui have been working toward a resolution, but the heavy hand of the Justice Department has threatened to file its own lawsuit. The department and Attorney General John Ashcroft may be looking for a case to bolster a three-year-old law giving churches advantages in zoning cases. In doing so, the department is meddling in a dispute that should be allowed to work itself out at the local level.

Federal Judge Samuel King refused in March to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the Hale O Kaula church against Maui County for denying it a permit to add a second floor to a building it uses to store farm equipment near Haiku so it can be used as a chapel. The suit has gained national attention because it tests a 2000 law that requires zoning authorities to show a "compelling interest" -- difficult to prove -- to support any decision that "substantially burdens" religious interests.

King earlier had declined to apply the controversial law in ruling that the county acted within federal and state constitutional bounds in denying the permit to the church. The case is scheduled to go to trial this month, but the church and the county have been meeting to try to resolve the dispute.

Enter the Justice Department. Its civil rights division notified Maui County in May that it was considering a lawsuit against the county for violating the 2000 law by "imposing a substantial burden on Hale O Kaula's religious exercise" and discriminating against the church on the basis of religion or religious domination.

"I was tempted to start my letter in response by saying, 'Greetings from the sovereign state of Hawaii,'" Madelyn S. D. Enbeau, a Maui deputy corporation counsel, told the New York Times.

Two weeks ago, U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson of Los Angeles ruled in a zoning dispute in California that the federal law relied upon by Hale O Kaula is unconstitutional because it expanded the First Amendment protection of churches. If Wilson's ruling is upheld by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, it could be applied to the Hale O Kaula case. A broader version of the law was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1997.

The Justice Department has taken a special interest in the Maui case, drawing accusations by Marci A. Hamilton, a professor at Cordozo Law School who argued before the Supreme Court against the earlier law. "The Ashcroft Justice Department is just dramatically pro-religion," Hamilton said. "I assessed the Clinton administration as the most religious administration since Grant, and now the Bush administration is outstripping Clinton."

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Beleaguered HVCB is
still valuable tool
for selling Hawaii

THE ISSUE Governor Lingle has said the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau may not receive all of the state's tourism marketing business.

REVERBERATIONS from a stinging state audit of the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau are not likely to subside anytime soon, but they should not lead to the collapse of the only private organization devoted entirely to marketing the state's tourism. Governor Lingle has indicated that the state would be wise to contract other firms to market Hawaii but that should not be to the exclusion of HVCB.

The audit by Legislative Auditor Marion Higa concluded that inadequate oversight of the bureau by the Hawaii Tourism Authority, a state agency, had provided the bureau with "a blank check to spend state funds for self-serving purposes." HVCB officials held a news conference promising to improve its spending practices, but only after Governor Lingle said the tourism authority "may award portions of its contract to organizations other than HVCB." The bureau's three-year, $114 million contract with the state expires in December.

The state may well find that specialized companies are better equipped to market Hawaii in certain areas or with particular messages. As examples, the governor mentioned "an organization with expertise in Japan or Europe or meetings and conventions."

Such an approach should not weaken HVCB as the only nonprofit trade organization for tourism businesses to market the state's attractions to visitors. Rex Johnson, head of the tourism authority, said it is considering a four-year contract with HVCB worth $34 million a year. Higa's report should not prompt a drastic change in the state's consideration of such a contract.