From SCOTUSblog:
On Tuesday, March 31st, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous opinion in Hawaii v. Office of Hawaiian Affairs, reversing the Hawaii Supreme Court’s holding that the federally enacted Apology Resolution bars the State of Hawaii from selling to third parties any land held in public trust until the claims of native Hawaiians to the lands have been resolved. The Court first held that it has jurisdiction to review the Hawaii Supreme Court’s opinion because it rested on the Apology Resolution. It then found the Hawaii Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Apology Resolution to be erroneous, and held that federal law does not bar the State from selling land held in public trust. Accordingly, it remanded the case for the Hawaii Supreme Court to determine if Hawaiian law alone supports the same outcome.
Justice Alito, writing for the Court, first rejected respondents’ argument that the Court lacks jurisdiction to hear the case because the decision below rested on adequate and independent state grounds. Justice Alito relied on Michigan v. Long, which held that the Court has jurisdiction so long as the “the adequacy and independence of any possible state law ground is not clear from the face of the opinion.” Because the Hawaii Supreme Court opinion lacked a plain statement that it rested solely on state law, and instead explicitly relied on the Apology Resolution multiple times, the Court had “no doubt that the decision below rested on federal law,” and, thus, that it had jurisdiction to review the Hawaii Supreme Court’s interpretation of federal law.
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