TRO Denied To Churches Planning To Deny Use For Civil Unions-- Claim Is Non-Justiciable

In Emmanuel Temple v. Abercrombie, (D HI, Dec. 30, 2011), an Hawaii federal district court denied a temporary restraining order to prevent enforcement against two churches of Hawaii's public accommodation anti-discrimination laws. Plaintiffs feared enforcement based on their planned refusal to make their facilities available to those who might seek to use them for celebrating civil unions under Hawaii's civil union law that is effective on Jan. 1.  The court concluded that the churches' claim is not justiciable because their plans to violate the anti-discrimination law in the future are vague and any threat of enforcement of the law against them is highly speculative. (See prior related posting.) The Honolulu Star-Advertiser and Honolulu Civil Beat report on the decision.