In a unanimous 5-0 decision, the Hawai‘i Supreme Court ruled that the
Hawai‘i Attorney General was fully authorized to issue a subpoena to obtain the bank
records of the non-profit organization KAHEA: The Hawaiian-Environmental Alliance, to
determine whether KAHEA’s solicitation and use of funds to support direct actions to
prevent construction on Mauna Kea violated laws and regulations governing nonprofit
organizations.
“The Attorney General takes seriously its important duty under the law to ensure that
non-profit organizations, which obtain financial benefits from tax exemptions and
solicitation of tax-deductible donations, comply with the law,” Attorney General Clare E.
Connors said. “It is the obligation of the Attorney General to investigate when it appears
organizations may be using their ‘taxpayer-funded subsidy’ in contravention of
longstanding federal and state law regulating activities that are supposed to serve the
public interest.”
In the case of In re Investigation of: KAHEA, the Supreme Court ruled that the Hawai‘i
Attorney General has a duty to “represent the public interest in the protection of
charitable assets,” and that a determination of whether an investigation into non-profit
organizations is in the public interest rests solely with the Attorney General. The
Supreme Court refused to quash the subpoena and rejected arguments that the
subpoena violated KAHEA’s First Amendment rights. In its opinion, the Court held that
the Attorney General’s ability to issue subpoenas in the public interest “rests squarely
with the Attorney General. Not with KAHEA. And not with this court.”
The Supreme Court’s decision affirms the well-established understanding that, in
exchange for considerable tax-benefits subsidized by all taxpayers, non-profits are
subject to the broad investigatory oversight of the Attorney General and to the many
investigatory tools available to ensure compliance with the law