HONOLULU (AP) — The Latest on Hawaii Supreme Court's decision upholding a construction permit for a giant telescope (all times local):
11:30 a.m.
One of the main Native Hawaiian leaders in the fight against a giant telescope says she's bewildered by a state Supreme Court ruling upholding the project's construction permit.
Kealoha Pisciotta is among those who consider the mountain where the telescope is planned to be built to be sacred.
Pisciotta says she hasn't fully read Tuesday's decision. She says she's shocked.
The ruling says astronomy and Native Hawaiian uses on Mauna Kea have co-existed for many years. The ruling says the Thirty Meter Telescope will not curtail or restrict Native Hawaiian uses.
Kealoha says the people of Hawaii shouldn't be disheartened by the ruling because it doesn't change that Mauna Kea on the Big Island is a sacred place.
A spokesman for the Thirty Meter Telescope didn't immediately comment.
The project has become one of Hawaii's most divisive issues.
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11:10 a.m.
The Hawaii Supreme Court has ruled that the state land board was correct in approving a construction permit to build a giant telescope on a mountain Hawaiians consider sacred.
The ruling issued Tuesday is a victory for the Thirty Meter Telescope planned for Mauna Kea on the Big Island.
Telescope opponents appealed after a hearings officer recommended granting the permit and the land board approved it. Opponents complained about various due process issues, including that the hearings officer had a conflict of interest because she was a member of a Big Island astronomy center.
The project has been one of Hawaii's most divisive issues.
The court invalidated the project's first permit in 2015, ruling that the approval process was flawed and ordering the parties to go through the steps again.
