Laserfiche WebLink
determine that. In almost all cases I think they would weed <br /> them out. So the process has a built-in protection against <br /> voting for people who don ' t know the island or what this <br /> place is all about. Maybe that is the protection that is <br /> sufficient. I don ' t know, I 'm just guessing. <br /> Is there any question on the matter of resi- <br /> dency? Preliminarily, I would say, more than likely my <br /> recommendation would be to eliminate all questions of resi- <br /> dency in order to qualify to run for the county council . , <br /> MR. OMONAKA: How does the state set its <br /> requirements for the members of the house? By district? <br /> MR. ODA: There may be some residency require- <br /> ments there. I haven ' t researched that but I am almost sure <br /> that I ran across some residency requirements in the state <br /> representatives and the senate. I think they, in fact, may <br /> have been either in the constitution or the state statute. <br /> I 'm not sure. <br /> MR. CADINHA: Stuart, what is the Supreme <br /> Court ' s logic behind the abolishment of the residency require- <br /> ments? Particularly, why is it unfair. <br /> MR. ODA: Basically, when they struck down <br /> residency requirements in various laws, state statutes such <br /> as welfare and other things , they hung their decisions on <br /> several constitutional so-called pegs. First of all , when <br /> you are speaking of residency, because of the type of mobile <br /> society we have today, people cannot be penalized for traveling <br /> interstate. You, in effect, are penalizing people for <br /> traveling and under the Thirteenth Amendment, I believe, which <br /> contains the privileges and immunities clause of citizenship, <br /> you cannot deny a person the right to obtain the privileges <br /> and immunities of citizenship. Such as a basic right to vote <br /> if he travels interstate and moves to another community. The <br /> other premise is that generally and again this is connected <br /> when you do create barriers for new residents in a community <br /> you tend to discriminate under the Fourteenth Amendment ' s <br /> equal protection clause against newcomers thereby perpetuating <br /> the policies or type of government of the old regime without <br /> giving the newcomers the right to participate. Thereby, also <br /> denying them what we call due process of law. So there are <br /> all kinds of constitutional bases on which the courts have <br /> struck down these statutes. But the basic one, I believe, is <br /> the fact that you are denying them the privileges and immunities <br /> of citizenship. <br /> MRS. KOBAYASHI : Regarding the residency, under <br /> the section on qualifications , it also says if the councilman <br /> elected from a district leaves residency from that district his <br /> seat will be vacant. Does that also apply? Or would that also <br /> be unconstitutional? We could still keep that? <br /> - 25 - <br />