JUDICIAL SELECTION COMMISSION

     Section 4.  There shall be a judicial selection commission that shall consist of nine members.  The governor shall appoint two members to the commission.  No more than one of the two members shall be a licensed attorney.  The president of the senate and the speaker of the house of representatives shall each respectively appoint two members to the commission.  The chief justice of the supreme court shall appoint one member to the commission.  Members in good standing of the bar of the State shall elect two of their number to the commission in an election conducted by the supreme court or its delegate.  No more than four members of the commission shall be licensed attorneys.  At all times, at least one member of the commission shall be a resident of a county other than the City and County of Honolulu.

     The commission shall be selected and shall operate in a wholly nonpartisan manner.  After the initial formation of the commission, elections and appointments to the commission shall be for staggered terms of six years each.  Notwithstanding the foregoing, no member of the commission shall serve for more than six years on the commission.

     Each member of the judicial selection commission shall be a resident of the State and a citizen of the United States.  No member shall run for or hold any other elected office under the United States, the State or its political subdivisions.  No member shall take an active part in political management or in political campaigns.  No member shall be eligible for appointment to the judicial office of the State so long as the person is a member of the judicial commission and for a period of three years thereafter.

     No act of the judicial selection commission shall be valid except by concurrence of the majority of its voting members.

     The judicial selection commission shall select one of its members to serve as chairperson.  The commission shall adopt rules which shall have the force and effect of law.  The deliberations of the commission shall be confidential.

     The legislature shall provide for the staff and operating expenses of the judicial selection commission in a separate budget.  No member of the judicial selection commission shall receive any compensation for commission services, but shall be allowed necessary expenses for travel, board and lodging incurred in the performance of commission duties.

     The judicial selection commission shall be attached to the judiciary branch of the state government for purposes of administration. [Add Const Con 1978 and election Nov 7, 1978; am SB 2513 (1994) and SB 2515 (1994) and election Nov 8, 1994]

Rules of Court

  See Judicial Selection Commission Rules.

Attorney General Opinions

  Rule adopted by the commission, authorizing the commission to appoint its administrative assistant and such other staff as it believes necessary for its successful operation and exempting all staff positions it may from time to time create from the civil service and collective bargaining, was valid.  The commission was well within its authority to ask the judiciary to rescind the judiciary's selection of a civil service replacement for its current administrative assistant II, and furnish all administrative support necessary to reestablish its administrative assistant II position as an exempt position effective January 1, 2008, and assist the commission in advertising, interviewing, and selecting a replacement for its incumbent upon the incumbent's retirement.  Att. Gen. Op. 07-3.

Law Journals and Reviews

  Politics, Merit and the Selection of Judges.  10 HBJ No. 13, at pg. 61.

Case Notes

  Confidentiality requirement of rule 7 of the rules of the judicial selection commission does not apply to the governor or the chief justice after the judicial selection commission has submitted its lists of judicial nominees for consideration; it is within the sole discretion of appointing authorities whether to make public disclosure of the commission’s lists of judicial nominees.  75 H. 333, 861 P.2d 723.

  Section neither expressly mandates that lists containing the names of the judicial selection commission’s judicial nominees remain confidential nor that they be publicly disclosed.  Petitioner failed to meet burden of demonstrating beyond a reasonable doubt that rule 7 of the rules of the judicial selection commission was a plain, clear, manifest, and unmistakable violation of this section.  75 H. 333, 861 P.2d 723.