Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi (above) reviews holiday wreaths submitted in last year’s contest.
Thanks to the brilliant work of William Kelly of our COS Legal Team, the magnificent Christmas wreath handmade by Hawaii’s volunteer activist Chanara Richmond, has been put back on display at Honolulu City Hall for the holiday season.
Here’s what happened.
On December 2nd, Chanara and State Director Mark White delivered the wreath and officially entered it into the 2024 contest. They even helped hang it in the gallery.
Chanara Richmond (left, above) delivered her Christmas wreath along with State Director Mark White.
Yet not more than two days later Chanara was called by a city contest official explaining that her wreath would be taken down and removed from display because it violated the contest's rules.
It did what?!
Yeah…The complaint was it made a prohibited political statement by displaying the name of our organization “Convention of States.”
Hawaii’s Team immediately sprang into action and notified two City Council members who tried to intervene. Then, working through Region Director Andrew Lusch, the team asked for help from our national legal staff.
And that’s when William Kelly, JD, wrote a letter defending our contest submission and outlining how unconstitutional the city’s decision was to remove our legitimate display entry. Here’s an excerpt of his writing making a profound argument for COS:
As a direct result of Will Kelly’s intervention, our wreath is back on display in the Honolulu Hale (City Hall) gallery!
Learn more about the Convention of States organization by clicking here.
