The Supreme Court, in a one-line order without explanation, on Tuesday upheld the 2012 plan for redistricting the state legislature in Hawaii. A three-judge federal district court had rejected challenges to the plan by residents of Oahu.
The challengers argued that the plan failed to count many residents, such as members of the military and their families and students in college whose home states are elsewhere. Also protested was the fact that the plan did not include any districts that included people from more than one island — so-called “canoe districts.” As a result, there are broad differences in population between the districts, the Oahu residents contended.