Hawai'i residents could get another chance to vote on a constitutional amendment that would make it easier to convict people accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting children under age 14.

The state Attorney General's Office yesterday said it will urge state lawmakers to reintroduce the amendment, which was struck down by the state Supreme Court Thursday. The amendment was approved by voters last year.

But the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawai'i, which was against the amendment last year, will oppose it again.

In its unanimous decision, the court ruled that the way state lawmakers passed legislation putting the issue on the ballot violated the state Constitution.

Yesterday, Attorney General Mark Bennett issued a written statement calling the decision "extraordinarily unfortunate."

"As a result of this decision, an important tool in law enforcement's ability to protect young children from sexual assault continues to be missing, and it is the young children of Hawai'i who will suffer as a result," the statement said.

He said the decision is "undemocratic and disregards the will of the Legislature, the vote of the people and past practice."

Bennett said his office will ask the Legislature to readopt the amendment.

The high court ruled the Constitution was violated because a bill to change the statute was changed to amend the Constitution after the measure had advanced through the House and the first of three readings in the Senate. In addition, the title of the legislation did not reflect it was to amend the Constitution, the court said.

ACLU lawyers who represented 38 voters who challenged the amendment said the result of the "11th hour" switch was that the public was shut out from commenting on the legislation.

"The attorney general gets it actually backward," said Lois Perrin, ACLU Hawai'i's legal director. "The Legislature had attempted to shortcut the Constitution, a practice if approved would have been harmful to us all. The duty of the Supreme Court is to protect the integrity of the Constitution and to be vigilant in protecting it against any and all violations."

She said the ACLU will oppose the amendment, but the public this time "will have the benefit of a full public debate at the Legislature as the Constitution envisioned."

The amendment would have essentially restored a 1997 state law that calls for a maximum 20-year sentence for sexual offenders who molest children three times or more. In 2003, the Hawai'i Supreme Court struck down the law because it did not require jurors to unanimously agree that each of sexual assaults had occurred.

The amendment proposal was ratified by about 282,000 of the 430,000 ballots in the November general election.

The strategy of reinstating an amendment by returning to the Legislature and placing it on the ballot again has worked before.

In February last year, the high court stuck down an amendment ratified by voters in 2002 that would have allowed prosecutors to send felony cases to trial by sending written reports to a judge.

The court ruled that constitutional mandates on the ratification process was not followed when the state did not provide a text of the proposal to state libraries and did not include the text in pamphlets mailed to voters.

The Legislature later in the year approved legislation that placed the amendment on last year's election ballot. In addition to the repeat sex-offender amendment, it was one of three other amendments approved by voters.

Reach Ken Kobayashi at kkobayashi@honoluluadvertiser.com.