Hawaii House Judiciary Committee approves con amendment to release all names...
A bill introduced in 2013 and previously discussed here to change the Hawaii merit selection system has seen new life in 2014. Under HB 420 as passed by the House Judiciary on January 23 and subject to...
View ArticleChanges to merit selection commissions move out of committee in three states;...
Efforts to change merit selection, usually in favor of giving more power to legislatures and governors and diminish the role played by attorneys and state bars, are now advancing in several states....
View ArticleHawaii Senate votes today on creation of environmental divisions of state’s...
Many states have statutes or rules of court that allow for the creation of “environmental courts”; dockets or divisions of a court that hear nothing but cases related to environmental issues. Hawaii’s...
View ArticleHawaii: constitutional amendment allowing retired judges to come back into...
A plan to let the Hawaii Chief Justice recall retired judges back into service that failed at the ballot box in 2012 is up for a new hearing today. First, some background. Hawaii’s been voting on and...
View Article“Court packing”, control of merit selection commissions, name disclosure, and...
This week turned into a very big week for the way states pick their judges and justices and next week could be just as big. Alabama: the House and Senate Judiciary committees passed bills to create a...
View ArticleHawaii: Plan to require judicial nominating commission release all names...
Last Friday (March 21) the Hawaii Senate unanimously approved HB 420, a constitutional amendment to require the state’s merit selection commission release all the names submitted to the governor (and...
View ArticleSpecial look at what will be on the November 2014 ballot affecting state courts
Publication link here. There are 6 months until the November 2014 elections and the ballot will be full of items impacting the courts. This special edition reviews what will be and may be before voters...
View ArticleNew Jersey: State bar plus 20+ county bars want automatic reappointment of...
With concern growing that Governor Chris Christie will not reappoint Chief Justice Stuart Rabner when his current term 7-year term comes up in June, news reports indicate that the State Bar of New...
View ArticleEfforts to change state constitutions to remove/alter Judicial Council or...
This second installment looks at efforts to change state constitutional grants of rulemaking authority to courts of last resort, typically called the “supreme court”, or judicial councils. My...
View ArticleChanging civil jurisdiction thresholds – Part 2
This second in a series of posts looks at legislative efforts to change the civil jurisdiction thresholds in state limited and general jurisdiction courts in the last decade. For a listing of all...
View ArticleHawaii Mandatory Judicial Retirement Age Amendment: 32 states impose some...
Hawaii’s constitution (Art. 6, Sec. 3) currently provides that judges must retire at the age of 70. Justices and judges shall be retired upon attaining the age of seventy years. They shall be included...
View ArticleHawaii Mandatory Judicial Retirement Age Amendment: State has had mandatory...
When the issue came up last year in New York, I looked at the history of mandatory judicial retirement age in the state. Today, I’ll be looking at Hawaii. From 1898 to 1959, Hawaii was an organized...
View ArticleHawaii Mandatory Judicial Retirement Age Amendment: Third time voters will...
This year will mark the third time in a decade that Hawaii voters will be deciding issues related to mandatory judicial retirement. A review of these efforts shows a great many elements at play in the...
View ArticleHawaii Amendment 1: 14 out of 18 states release names submitted to governor...
At issue in Hawaii’s Amendment 1 is the question of whether or not the governor is obligated to release the names of the finalists submitted by the state’s judicial nominating commission. In the last...
View ArticleElection 2014 Final Results: The winners and losers
The votes are in and the results from last night’s elections are below. Analysis of the results to follow later today. Winners Alabama Amendment 1 (72%): Prohibit state courts from using international...
View ArticleElection 2014 winners and what they (could) mean for 2015 legislation
A look at the winners in last night’s election may help in predicting what will come out of the 2015 legislative sessions Alabama Amendment 1 bans state courts from using international or foreign law....
View ArticleHawaii Legislative Year in Review: require release of names given for...
On Ballot HB 420 (Constitutional Amendment) Requires the judicial selection commission to publicly disclose its list of nominees for appointment to the office of the chief justice, supreme court,...
View ArticleHawaii: Prohibit online posting of judges’ home addresses; restrict access to...
Hawaii’s legislature is currently debating several proposals to limit access to and ban the posting online of personal information about judges, their spouses, and their children. HB 288 and SB 432...
View ArticleHawaii House resolutions call for judiciary’s website to be rewritten to...
Hawaii’s State Constitution declares in part that “English and Hawaiian shall be the official languages of Hawaii.” In response, a member of the Hawaii House has introduced both a simple (HR 152) and...
View ArticleReview of 2015 efforts to change, alter, or end merit selection/commission...
The last several years have seen numerous efforts to modify or simply abolish merit selection/commission-based judicial appointive systems and 2015 was no exception. In these systems , a commission...
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