The bill has cleared the Senate unanimously and one House committee. David Tarnas, chair of the House Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs Committee, said he will decide soon whether to hear it as well — the last committee necessary for the bill to advance to likely conference committee

Whether it passes legal muster remains to be seen. The Attorney General’s Office opposes SB 2471.

Deputy Attorney General Christopher Han told lawmakers that, while the department “greatly sympathizes with the frustration with federal case law on this subject,” the bill raises “serious constitutional concerns and substantial adverse litigation risk” should it become law.

“While many Americans strongly disagree with the U.S. Supreme Court’s holding in Citizens United, under our federal system of government, it is our duty to state that this opinion remains the law of the land, irrespective of its merits (or lack thereof),” he said in written testimony last month.

Han reaffirmed that argument when he spoke to the House Consumer Protection and Commerce Committee on March 18. He said SB 2471 relied on “an untested legal theory, the viability of which we find questionable.”