June 15th: 9th Circuit Court Hearing on Hawai’i GMO Cases

06-15-16 Update to Federal Court Case

On Wednesday the Shaka Movements Appeal of the Federal District Court decisions 1st prohibiting the County from implementing the ordinance we voted for, and then finding that we supposedly did not have the authority to decide this in the first place reached the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Ninth Circuit Court hears appeals from cases that originate in the States of Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington as well as other territorial courts of U.S. Jurisdiction in the Pacific. Of the Appeals Courts, one step below the United States Supreme Court, they are considered very influential.

The same three judge panel who had selected to hear the appeal also was hearing appeals from Kauai County and Hawaii County – all of which represented different strategies that were advanced by the people of Hawaii in response to community concerns related to the presence of large scale open air, experimental, industrial chemical pesticide use on the islands and development of new plants with high levels of tolerance to these poisons as food crops. Although the strategies and facts of each case are unique the same Federal Court, based in Hawaii invalidated.. Read the full update here

Watch the hearing below.