Frequently Asked Questions

Is this effort spon­sored with U.S. fed­eral grants or State of Hawai’i funding?

Absolutely not! This ini­tia­tive has been funded with dona­tions from pri­vate cit­i­zens. It receives no finan­cial assis­tance from any orga­ni­za­tion. Every offi­cer in this gov­ern­ment pays for their own travel and lodg­ing expenses upon the occa­sion of leg­isla­tive con­ven­tions. This process is not influ­enced by fed­eral, state or county funding.

Won’t inde­pen­dence from the United States hurt Hawai’i’s economy?

No. It will be lib­er­ated. Kame­hameha the Third — not Uncle Sam — ini­ti­ated the process that moved Hawai’i from a subsistence-based soci­ety to a free mar­ket econ­omy. The local econ­omy kept on going after its law­ful gov­ern­ment was over­thrown and will con­tinue after its gov­ern­ment returns. Imag­ine a Hawai’i unfet­tered by restric­tive U.S. fed­eral reg­u­la­tions that exer­cises its own national trade policy.

This is apartheid!

Wrong. Apartheid occurs when one group of cit­i­zens of a coun­try actively oppresses another group of cit­i­zens of the same coun­try on the basis of race. The res­i­dents of Hawai’i who CHOOSE to retain their U.S. cit­i­zen­ship can­not make that claim against those who are cit­i­zens of the rein­stated Hawai­ian Gov­ern­ment. There isn’t a nation on the planet that places the inter­ests of its non-citizens over the inter­ests of its citizens.

Why do I have to give up my United States cit­i­zen­ship to par­tic­i­pate in this government?

A U.S. cit­i­zen can­not vote in the gov­ern­men­tal elec­tions of Japan. It is a for­eign nation to the United States. The rein­stated Hawai­ian Gov­ern­ment is no dif­fer­ent. Every Hawai’i-born res­i­dent has a choice to make: con­tinue your alle­giance to the U.S. or apply for nat­u­ral­iza­tion to this nation. If you want to par­tic­i­pate in this gov­ern­ment, you have to renounce your cur­rent cit­i­zen­ship. The Hawai­ian gov­ern­ment does not tol­er­ate dual cit­i­zen­ship. Choose a coun­try and be loyal to it.

What is the law­ful Hawai­ian Gov­ern­ment try­ing to achieve?

The pur­pose of this gov­ern­ment is to rein­state Hawai’i as an inde­pen­dent nation. To this end, sev­eral nation­wide efforts were con­ducted: pub­lic notice of the rein­state­ment ini­tia­tive, a cit­i­zen­ship drive, revival of the nation’s vot­ing dis­tricts, a par­lia­men­tary elec­tion, a con­sti­tu­tional con­ven­tion, a plebiscite on rat­i­fy­ing the pro­posed con­sti­tu­tion and the instal­la­tion of a Prime Min­is­ter and the offi­cers of the Exec­u­tive Cabinet.

If I sup­port this process, what’s in it for me?

You will have the sat­is­fac­tion of DOING THE RIGHT THING. The State of Hawai’i pre­sides in Hawai’i under the author­ity of force (main­tained by the well-armed United States of Amer­ica). Only the inher­ent sov­er­eignty of Hawai’i can pre­side in these islands under the author­ity of law. By par­tic­i­pat­ing as a cit­i­zen or by lend­ing your sup­port, you are restor­ing the law­ful body politic of these islands to power.

What makes you the “law­ful Hawai­ian Government”?

The per­sons that last occu­pied the offices of this gov­ern­ment were Queen Lili’uokalani and her cab­i­net (the exec­u­tive branch), the King­dom Leg­is­la­ture (the leg­isla­tive branch), and the King­dom Supreme Court (the judi­cial branch).

While the over­throw and annex­a­tion removed them from office, it did not destroy the offices. The law of nations state that an invad­ing coun­try can­not dis­solve the gov­ern­ment of the con­quered coun­try, it can only put that gov­ern­ment in exile. So the offices have been vacant for one hun­dred and seven years. When this truth was dis­cov­ered, the edu­ca­tional group KAONA went to every com­mu­nity to share this infor­ma­tion. The 1893 Protest Let­ter of Lili’uokalani was an appli­ca­tion of inter­na­tional law that pre­served the right of her peo­ple to re-establish the gov­ern­ment that was over­thrown. The Memo­r­ial Peti­tion of 1897 signed by 38,000 Hawai­ian cit­i­zens proved that they never con­sented to U.S. annex­a­tion. The law­ful Hawai­ian Gov­ern­ment is acknowl­edged and rec­og­nized in para­graph 29 of U.S. Pub­lic Law 103 – 150 as the inher­ent sov­er­eignty of Hawai’i.

By what author­ity can you do this?

The same author­ity that Wash­ing­ton, Madi­son, Adams, Franklin and Hamil­ton used in found­ing the United States of Amer­ica: the Law of Nations. The U.S. Con­sti­tu­tion states its obser­vance of these laws in Arti­cle I, Sec­tion 8, Clause 10. Since it also abides by the law of nations, the Hawai­ian Con­sti­tu­tion extols the same virtues as the United States.

What sep­a­rates the law­ful Hawai­ian Gov­ern­ment from all the other sov­er­eignty groups?

We are not a sov­er­eignty group. We are man­i­fest­ing the nation that right­fully presided over the Hawai­ian Islands before its gov­ern­ment was over­thrown. The gov­ern­ments pro­posed by groups such as Ka Lahui Hawai’i, ‘Aha Hawai’i O’iwi, and the Nation of Hawai’i were devised in char­ters com­posed in the last twenty years. The law­ful Hawai­ian Gov­ern­ment was estab­lished in 1840 by King Kame­hameha the Third.

So what about the State of Hawai’i government?

The state gov­ern­ment is what is known as a gov­ern­ment de facto (gov­ern­ment in fact). This type of gov­ern­ment pre­sides legit­i­mately over a ter­ri­tory and its pop­u­la­tion in the absence of the gov­ern­ment de jure. A gov­ern­ment de facto has less author­ity than the gov­ern­ment de jure. When the law­ful gov­ern­ment returns from exile, the gov­ern­ment de facto no longer has legal authority.

So this is secession?!

No. Only the leg­is­la­ture of the State of Hawai’i can autho­rize seces­sion from the United States. A rein­stated and inde­pen­dent Hawai’i requires no U.S. con­gres­sional con­sent to exer­cise its author­ity. We won’t be sub­mit­ting a Bill of Seces­sion to the U.S. gov­ern­ment. We don’t need to. And the U.S. knows it.

If you have any ques­tions you would like answered please feel free to post a com­ment below.