"When you have overzealous employees like the guard at the library, this law gives them the authority to ban (gays) from gathering in public places," Miller said. "We have been alienated from so many government services, it just continues to build on the fact that we are again seen as less than others. It continues the stigma that we are not welcome." The Center provides services and programs to the local lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, intersex and questioning communities.

The state law, known as Act 50, gives public officials broad powers to ban individuals from using public spaces such as beaches, streets, sidewalks and even public buildings. The law was written by Sen. Robert Bunda as a tool to remove homeless people living at Mokule'ia beaches and was signed into law in May by Gov. Linda Lingle. Lingle and Attorney General Mark Bennett were named as defendants in the lawsuit.

"This law gives unbridled discretion to police and others to engage in arbitrary and capricious denials of protected expression based on nothing more than their individual prejudices and predilections," said ACLU legal director Lois K. Perrin. "This statute is a classic, standardless law in blatant violation of the United States and Hawai'i constitutions."

Bennett said the statute does not have the "evils" the ACLU claims. "The lawsuit says that because there is a potential that some state or county official could misuse the law, it makes the law unconstitutional on its face," Bennett said. "That just is not, in my opinion, a legally viable principle."

Bennett said there are situations in which it is appropriate and lawful for the state to issue warnings and to bar people from particular state premises and to arrest them for trespassing if they ignore those warnings.

"The state has the right to protect its interests," he said. "The state can't bar somebody because they are exercising their First Amendment rights, but that doesn't mean a trespass statute which allows the state to bar someone for perfectly legitimate reasons, is unconstitutional."

Bennett said Act 50 is in line with other trespassing laws and he expects to win the case.

"If there are individual cases in which individuals misuse the law, or any other law, then it should be dealt with on a case-to-case basis," he said. "If someone believes they have been improperly told to leave state property both before and after this statute, they can complain about it, can bring it to a person's superior. If they think they have been improperly barred they can ask the state to reverse that."

The lawsuit claims that the rights of due process and free speech are being violated by the law and asks for a preliminary and permanent injunction stopping any more warnings from being issued or anyone from being prosecuted under the law.

"Although this ill-conceived law was intended to target homeless individuals, its enforcement has not been so limited, " Perrin said. "For example, a security guard elected to ban one of the plaintiffs in this lawsuit from the Hawai'i State Library simply because he used one of the library's public computers to access www.gayhawaii.com, a resource Web site for the gay community. The United States and Hawai'i constitutions clearly protect such activity."

Perrin said Hernandez, a Ho-nolulu resident, would not be available for comment.

Bunda said the law was written because Mokule'ia has had a major problem with squatters living at the beach for more than a decade. Dozens of people live in tent cities at Mokule'ia Beach Park, at the nearby beach owned by the military and the state park at Ka'ena Point.

However, the law makes no specific mention of Mokule'ia and is applicable statewide.

Last weekend the state Department of Land and Natural Resources strictly enforced existing camping rules at Mokule'ia without using the new law, according to a department spokeswoman.

North Shore residents have complained for years that the litter from illegal campsites creates a mess, that the lack of public restrooms at the Army beach and Ka'ena Point is a health hazard and people are often intimidated from using the beaches for fear of theft or violent behavior from squatters. And they say, if the squatters are ticketed or kicked off one beach, they just move to another one without leaving the area.

Police say they have not yet used the new law at Mokule'ia or in Honolulu because no system has been set up to record the warnings issued and they knew it would likely face legal challenges.

"Fortunately, there are enough people in law enforcement and the prosecutors that have issues with the way the bill was written. We haven't used it at all," said Maj. Michael Tucker of the Ho-nolulu Police Department. "We are not against the intent, it's just how it would be implemented. We need to have a repository on the warnings and doing it through records is a little cumbersome."

Tucker said existing illegal camping laws are adequate for dealing with homeless people living in public areas.