Hawaii Governor Josh Green signed new legislation designed to limit corporate influence in state politics, marking the latest effort by states to address campaign finance concerns in the wake of federal court decisions.

The bill targets what supporters describe as "dark money" contributions and seeks to reduce the impact of corporate spending on Hawaii's political processes. The legislation comes more than a decade after the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, which allowed corporations and unions to spend unlimited amounts on elections through independent expenditures.

The new Hawaii law represents part of a broader trend among Democratic-led states to implement campaign finance restrictions at the state level, following unsuccessful efforts to overturn or modify the Citizens United ruling through federal legislation or constitutional amendments.

Details about the specific provisions of the Hawaii legislation and its implementation timeline were not immediately available. The bill's passage reflects ongoing partisan divisions over campaign finance policy, with Democrats typically favoring more restrictions on corporate political spending while Republicans often oppose such measures as violations of free speech rights.

Hawaii joins several other states that have enacted various forms of campaign finance reform legislation since the Citizens United decision, though the effectiveness and legal durability of such state-level measures continues to be debated by legal experts and political observers.