Updated at 2:49 p.m., Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Missed deadline derails judges' nominations
Advertiser Staff
The state Senate has rejected nominations of two district court judges for the Big Island because Hawai'i Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald T.Y Moon missed a constitutional deadline to get the nominees to the Senate.Moon submitted the names of Anthony Bartholomew and Harry Freitas to serve as judges on the Big Island's Third Circuit on Monday, two days late.
Moon had 30 days to make the nominations after being given a list of candidates from the state's Judicial Selection Commission.
The commission now will select the nominees from the same list it had given to Moon but is under no obligation to choose the same candidates as the chief justice did.
"We have no choice but to return the names to the chief justice without further action," state Senate President Colleen Hanabusa, D-21st (Nanakuli, Makaha), said in a statement today. "The constitution mandates a time period, and we need to follow constitutional requirements. The chief justice and the attorney general have agreed that the nominations were not timely, so we will proceed from here."
Moon issued a statement this morning that he agreed with the attorney general that the appointments were untimely. The chief justice explained that since the deadline fell on a weekend he thought he could submit the names on the next business day, which was Monday.
