The Supreme Court of Hawaii invalidated the building permit of the Thirty Meter Telescope project, from a highly anticipated ruling last Wednesday.

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The court ruled how the Hawaii Board of Land and Natural Resources conducted an error, regarding the issuance of a building permit for the project, before the contested case hearing was resolved and that the hearing was already held, all written in a 58 page long opinion.

Even before the permit to resume the project can be re-issued, the Board is now required to conduct a contested case hearing. According to Chairman Henry Yang of the Thirty Meter Telescope International Observatory Board of Directors, the TMT staff thanks the Hawaii Supreme Court for this appropriate ruling and we have utmost respect for their decision on this matter. TMT will follow this process set forth by the state, and we have always continued to do so.

Yang adds that they are now assessing their next steps forward from this case, and the TMT would like to thank the people of Hawaii including their supporters for the last, more than eight years. 

This dispute stems from the proposed telescope that would sit on top of the Mauna Kea, which is the highest point in Hawaii. This location is considered crucial for astronomers and sacred for Hawaii natives.

Native Hawaiian beliefs involve that the Mauna Kea mountain is sacred ground and home to several deities where they claim that this site should only be used for proper religious ceremonies.

However, the University of Hawaii has been managing this land as an astronomical reserve since the 1960s, where the university already built 13 telescopes but altogether, pale in comparison to the proposed, massive 18 story high Thirty Meter Telescope.

Since then, environmental activists are expressing opposition where they believe that there are grave ecological impacts from this massive facility, which is also slated to be the highest and the second largest Extremely Large Telescope on the planet.

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