(AP) — The Hawaiʻi Supreme Court has ruled in favor of two government watchdog groups who sued to stop the Legislature’s use of “gut and replace” tactics on legislation. The court says lawmakers violated the state constitution when they stripped a bill of its original content and substituted it with something entirely different and afterward failed to hold a sufficient number of readings for the amended measure. The lawsuit specifically challenged a 2018 law that started out as a bill requiring the state to make annual reports on recidivism but morphed into legislation about hurricane shelter space at public schools.

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