The Office of Hawaiian Affairs said Monday that it is asking a court to repeal the Mauna Kea Stewardship and Oversight Authority.

OHA announced it filed a lawsuit in Oahu Circuit Court last week challenging the legality and constitutionality of the law that created the authority.

The new state agency was created by Act 255, which was passed by the state Legislature and signed into law in 2022 by then-Gov. David Ige.

Legislators formed the authority and its 11-member board with the aim of bringing various groups to the same table to make decisions regarding the future of the summit, especially Native Hawaiians.

Mauna Kea has been the focus of controversy for the better part of a decade as Native Hawaiians have fought off multiple attempts to start construction of the landmark $2.6 billion Thirty Meter Telescope.

The Mauna Kea Stewardship and Oversight Authority board began meeting in June with a mandate to take over management of the summit from the University of Hawaii and the state Department of Land and Natural Resources in four years.

During the Act 255 legislative process, OHA was named as an entity with a seat on the authority board. But OHA was removed at the last minute in conference committee.

According to the lawsuit, Act 255 violates the “contract clause” of the U.S. Constitution and essentially exonerates the government agencies that have legal responsibility in the management of the Mauna Kea lands, which are ceded lands that benefit Native Hawaiians.

By establishing the authority, the Legislature created a new trustee and released the state and UH from all obligations regarding past and future mismanagement of Mauna Kea lands, the suit claims.

In addition, the complaint argues that the authority’s board consists of trustees with conflicts of interest that jeopardize their ability to serve all beneficiaries of the ceded-lands trust impartially.

For example, Act 255 specifically designates a seat on the authority board for a representative of the telescopes atop Mauna Kea. This creates a conflict of interest where that representative has the ability to vote on actions that can benefit them, according to the suit.

OHA board Chair Carmen “Hulu” Lindsey said OHA’s ultimate goal is to make the mountain more accessible and provide greater protections against the abuses it has endured over the years as astronomy developed unabated on the summit.

“Mauna Kea represents a sacred space for Native Hawaiians,” Lindsey said in a statement. “It is OHA’s responsibility to advocate for Native Hawaiians and protect Hawaiian resources.”

Asked for a response to the lawsuit, Toni Schwartz, spokesperson of the Department of Attorney General, said the department had yet to be served with the complaint and therefore would not comment at this time.

Authority Chair John Komeiji also declined to comment on the suit.

But, in general, he said the authority was created to give a voice to people who previously had no say in the decisions that were made for the mountain.

Komeiji also said a majority of the members are at a minimum part-Native Hawaiian.

A couple of members, Noe Noe Wong-Wilson and Lanakila Mangauil, are high-profile leaders of the Aloha Aina and A‘ole TMT movements and played key roles in the 2015 and 2019 protests on the mountain.

Wong-Wilson on Monday wouldn’t comment on the suit, either. But at the authority’s Jan. 11 board meeting, she told her fellow members, “We will work together to do the best job we can in our commitment to this authority, to the people, to Mauna Kea, to Aloha Aina and to the principles that we stand on … for future generations.”

OHA filed a lawsuit against the state in 2017, accusing UH of aggressively developing Mauna Kea for astronomy at the expense of the mountain’s environment and cultural significance.

The state attempted to dismiss the suit, but OHA ended up receiving a trial date for this July. OHA officials said the upcoming trial makes the filing of the latest lawsuit urgent, as the agency seeks to judicially dissolve the authority and have the merits of the 2017 OHA lawsuit weighed in court.

OHA board counsel Robert Klein said the latest lawsuit is designed to protect the rights of the Native Hawaiian beneficiaries of the Mauna Kea lands.

They “have received no benefit from the State, in contrast to the many benefits the University of Hawai‘i and the astronomy interests have received for decades,” Klein said in a news release.

When the Legislature left OHA without a place on the Mauna Kea authority board, it left “the only constitutionally mandated agency that represents the well-being of Native Hawaiians and recipient of ceded land revenues without a seat at the table to weigh in on the management and stewardship of the mauna,” according an FAQ page on OHA’s website.