Advertiser Staff
The state Supreme Court today denied the state’s motion for reconsideration in the Hawaii Superferry case.
The Lingle administration and state House and Senate lawmakers had asked the court to reconsider portions of its March ruling.
The court had ruled that a state law that allowed Superferry to operate while the state conducted an environmental impact statement was unconstitutional.
The ruling led Superferry to suspend operations indefinitely.
The court, however, amended its initial ruling to, among other things, clarify that the decision was based on a "general law" analysis and not an "equal protection" analysis.
Isaac Hall, an attorney for the environmental groups that brought the legal challenge to Superferry, said he was pleased.
"The meat of it is absolutely the same," Hall said of the court's decision.