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HILO, Hawaii (AP) — Three county laws in Hawaii restricting the cultivation of genetically modified crops that were invalidated by a federal judge are set to go before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The federal appeals court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in the cases on Wednesday from attorneys representing Hawaii, Maui and Kauai counties, West Hawaii Today reported (http://bit.ly/1rjYWIJ). "All three counties' cases are being argued back to back to back," said Honolulu attorney Paul Alston, who represents biotechnology concerns. "It should be a pretty intense morning for the court and for the public." The judges who oversaw the federal district court cases had invalidated the county bans on GMOs and ruled that state law pre-empts county law on the issue. Hawaii and Kauai counties had their anti-GMO laws struck down in 2014, while Maui's ban was thrown out in 2015. Kohala Councilwoman Margaret Willie, who authored the original Hawaii County bill limiting genetically modified organisms, disagreed with the judge's ruling. She said it imposed on the county's ability to protect the health and safety of its citizens. "I would hope that people could see the pre-emption issue is totally bogus," Wille said Friday. "There was no state law that would have pre-empted what we did." Hawaii County is being represented by national environmental advocacy groups, the Center for Food Safety and Earthjustice, which agreed to work for free. The two groups are also representing community members and environmental organizations in the Kauai case. The Maui group, Sustainable Hawaiian Agriculture for the Keiki and the Aina Movement, or SHAKA, which is defending a GMO moratorium there, has hired its own attorneys. |
