(AP) — Some Native Hawaiians are objecting to President Joe Biden’s choice for U.S. attorney in the 50th state, saying Clare Connors treated dozens of elders like criminals when her office prosecuted them for blocking a road while protesting the construction of a telescope in Hawaiʻi. The protesters consider the peak of Mauna Kea sacred and said the elders were exercising their constitutionally protected right to protest. Connors says she is honored with the nomination but declined to comment on the opposition because her confirmation process is pending. Connors has been Hawaiʻi’s state attorney general since 2019.

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