Second Senate Special Session set for Chief Justice Confirmation

By Senator Sam Slom
From the Hawaii Kai NHB #1 Report, August 31, 2010.

The State Senate is meeting in special session this week for the confirmation of two judicial nominees. Senate floor sessions will be called to order on September 1 and 2 to take care of the nominations of Justice Mark E. Recktenwald to the Chief Justice position in the Hawaii State Supreme Court and the confirmation of Blaine J. Kobayashi to the District Court of the Second Circuit for the County of Maui.

Both nominees appeared before the Senate Judiciary and Government Operations (JGO) committee on August 25 of which I am a member. The committee heard about 2 hours worth of testimony, most in support of the nominees. It is expected that the JGO committee will vote to advise and consent on the nominees, after which they should pass a confirmation vote before the full Senate on September 2.

Mark Recktenwald will become Hawaii’s 5th Chief Justice, succeeding Chief Justice Ronald Moon who will resign by September 4 due to the mandatory age limit statute that applies to all Hawaii State judges.

Recktenwald is a current associate justice on the Hawaii State Supreme Court after being named to the position last May. He previously served in the Hawaii State Intermediate Court of Appeals and was Director of the State Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs from 2003 to 2007.

Recktenwald is the 2nd person to be nominated by Governor Lingle to the Chief Justice position after the her initial nominee, Judge Katherine Leonard was turned down by the State Senate after going through the lengthy process and facing her critics.

District court nominee Blaine J. Kobayashi is a partner in the Carlsmith Ball LLP firm in Maui County. He previously served as Deputy Corporation Counsel for Maui County, Deputy County Attorney for Kauai County and Deputy Prosecuting Attorney, also for the County of Kauai.

The Senate floor sessions will be held in the Capitol Auditorium instead of the Senate Chamber which have been taken over since July by the Office of Elections for election tallying this fall. The September 1 session will be held at 10:00 am followed by a JGO committee hearing for decision making in Room 229 at 11:00 am the same day.

On September 2, the Senate is to meet again for the 11:00 am special session where the confirmation vote is to be taken.

Photo: Associate Justice Mark Recktenwald (left) appears before the Senate JGO committee on August 25. Also shown are KHON TV reporter Andrew Perreira and his cameraman; Sen. Brickwood Galuteria and Sen. Sam Slom.

Senator Hemmings in Support of Judge Katherine Leonard

August 12, 2010

To Whom It May Concern:

Please find enclosed a copy of my plea to the Hawaii State Senate supporting the nomination of Katherine Leonard for Hawaii’s Supreme Court Chief Justice. I would like you to have these remarks so that you will think about what I consider to be two serious problems with “Advise & Consent” and the passage of legislation.

1. Good people testify at hearings and their opinions are noted in the public record. Testifiers are subject to questioning at hearings. It is unconscionable that some senators freely admit that they take advice and base their votes on legislation from “off the record” or anonymous sources. This practice dramatically affects Advise and Consent and legislation because there is no recourse for open or free debate. We cannot afford to have a government where decision making is made anonymously or “off the record” and is often based on errant information that goes unchallenged behind the dark veil of anonymity.

2. Judicial activism is the other large problem. I respect Senator Hee’s open and honest dissertation on how judicial activism overcomes errant law; however, I disagree with Senator Hee’s logic. Brown vs Board of Education ruled that those laws being questioned and the deeds of Southern Democrat segregationists such as Faubus, Maddox, Wallace and others were unconstitutional. There is a huge difference between enforcing the Constitution and thereby nullifying errant law and instituting new law by judicial action based on a judge’s personal beliefs at any given time. The Court should first and foremost uphold the Constitution.

These two issues—anonymous decision making without checks and balances and judicial activism—are problems at the state and national level. I’m sending you my presentation because I feel that it is one of the most important pleas I have made during my tenure in the Senate. I hope that you will utilize the concepts in this speech to educate the people of Hawaii as to why we need a vibrant two party system and honest decision-making.

Aloha,
Senator Fred Hemmings
State of Hawai‘i

Download PDF
Senator Hemmings Floor Speech Katherine Leonard

Senator Slom’s floor remarks in support of Chief Justice Nominee Kate Leonard

 

Judge Kate Leonard at Senate JGO Hearing on August 3.

Ability to lead:  What does that really mean?  Well, if you’re going to look at an individual and see if they have the ability to lead, you look at what their past experience has been, people that they have worked with, people that, in fact, they have led.  All of the people that have worked directly with Katherine Leonard—in a supervisory position, a position of equality, or with her as their boss—everyone, without exception, came forward and spoke about her abilities, her leadership, her temperament, her concern, compassion, and care for those that she worked with and who worked for her.  Now, we can talk about the one retired Circuit Court judge who opposed her, and five individuals, or we can talk about the more than 100 individuals who stepped forward, including people that knew her intimately from the Intermediate Court of Appeals, from the State Supreme Court, from her private practice.  And certainly, everyone in every position should be given weight, but if we are truly talking about equality, then those people that came forward and know her best should at least be given the same equality as those few that opposed her and the Bar Association.

Senator Slom’s floor remarks in support of nominee To‘oto‘o

I think it was amazing to many of us the breadth of the reach that this man has in our community, and has had for so many years.  The fact that he had been a judge for seventeen years, we certainly had an opportunity to put him under the magnifying glass and see what he has done.  But more importantly, the people that came forward from every walk of life, including people that had gone against him—and he had ruled against them—without a doubt and without equivocation, they all supported this man for his integrity, for his character, for his fairness, for his judgment.

It was shameful that the Bar Association would come out against this man without any explanation whatsoever, and hide behind the cloak of anonymity.  But the public, who a judge really serves, came before our Committee, and one after another, without any contradiction, told about the leadership and the importance and the impact that this man has had on the lives of so many—and particularly among young people, and young people that have had troubles in our community.  He is a role model; he understands that.  He accepts that, but first and foremost, he is a judge, someone who looks at the law fairly and applies it.  Not too harshly, not too softly, but just the right amount of the law and compassion.

He is an amazing man.  As I mentioned in the Committee hearing, he is the poster boy for the American work ethic.  He trained himself to do so many things—to communicate, to be able to work with all kinds of people—and he has done it in an exemplary fashion.  I certainly expect to see him on a Wheaties box shortly.

Madam Chair, the only thing that I’m really concerned about is in the parade of people that came forward, we had one prosecutor who came forward and said how he played basketball one-on-one with the judge.  I don’t think it’s fair, looking at that prosecutor.  We had another attorney come forward and talk about how he played the judge in softball.  He, too, was height-challenged and weight-challenged; I don’t think that was fair.  And then finally, Judge Michael Town had to admit, under oath, how the Judge really whips him in canoe paddling.  So, I don’t know about the fairness issue, but I do know that this man commands, deserves, and is entitled to the respect for all of the things that he has done and all of the things that he will continue to do to make all of us proud of him.  I urge unanimous confirmation of Judge To‘oto‘o.  Thank you.