Hawaii was also the first state to legalize a woman's right to reproductive freedom (1970), and the first to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (1972). While that amendment failed to gain a sufficient number of states to be ratified nationally, its text was adopted as an amendment to the State Constitution by island voters in 1974.

Hawaii Congresswoman Patsy Mink was primary author of the Educational Amendments of 1972, which are better known today as Title IX, the legislation which shattered the glass ceiling in educational opportunities for women across the country.

Hawaii was the first state -- and until Massachusetts 32 yeas later, the only one -- to reform its health care system and achieve near-universal coverage with the Pre-Paid Health Care Act of 1974. Planning for that effort actually first began back in 1967.

I wouldn't underestimate our state's heart or determination here. Trump received less than 30% of the vote last November, and he and his administration are so widely despised that two GOP female state legislators bucked their party and assumed prominent roles in the local version of the nationwide Women's March on January 21, an act which has since drawn them both censure by the RNC.

U.S. District Judge Derrick K. Watson in Honolulu agreed yesterday to allow Hawaii Attorney General Douglas Chin to amend the State's original lawsuit -- filed at the time of the original ban -- in order to challenge the new order. He scheduled a hearing for March 15 at 10:30 a.m. Hawaii time (3:30 p.m. EST) to hear oral arguments on the matter, which sets the stage for an initial ruling a day before the travel ban is set to take effect.