STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3710

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    GOV. MSG. NO. 603

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred Governor's Message No. 603, submitting for study and consideration the nomination of: 

Civil Rights Commission

G.M. No. 603

LINDA KRIEGER, for a term to expire 06-30-2019,

begs leave to report as follows:

     Your Committee has reviewed the personal history, resume, and statement submitted by the nominee and finds Linda Krieger to possess the requisite qualifications to be nominated for reappointment to the Hawaii Civil Rights Commission.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of the nomination for the reappointment of Linda Krieger from the Hawaii Civil Rights Commission.

     Ms. Krieger is a Professor of Law at the William S. Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawaii where her areas of instruction include employment discrimination law, legislation and statutory interpretation, and civil procedure.  She also serves as the Director of the Ulu Lehua Scholars Program, which is a pre-admissions program at the law school to provide opportunities for legal education for students from underrepresented communities.  Prior to her joining the law school faculty, Ms. Krieger worked as a civil rights lawyer in California where she litigated, at the trial and appellate levels, a number of significant state and federal sex and race discrimination and other workers' rights cases.  Many of these cases established important legal and practical precedents in the areas of pregnancy discrimination, sexual harassment, and rights of workers affected by mass layoffs.  She also played a significant role in drafting state and federal legislation in these subject matter areas.  Subsequently, Ms. Krieger began teaching law at the University of California at Berkeley, Boalt Hall, where she taught employment discrimination law, civil procedure, legal problem solving and decision making, antidiscrimination law and policy, and an undergraduate course on American social movements and their relationship to the development of civil rights law and policy in the United States.

     Ms. Krieger has published extensively in the areas of disability discrimination, affirmative action, law and social cognition theory, international comparative equality law and policy, judgment in legal decision making, and theories of law and social change.  She currently serves as a member on the Committee on New Initiatives and Law School Liaison Committee for the Hawaii Access to Justice Commission and Board of Directors for Mental Health America of Hawaii.

     According to testimony submitted in support of Ms. Krieger's nomination for reappointment, she has served as the Chairperson of the Civil Rights Commission since her appointment in 2011.  She has been diligent and committed in the performance of her duties as Chairperson and her knowledge and expertise have been invaluable to the Commission in policy and rule making discussion and adjudication.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee, after full consideration of the background, experience, and qualifications of the nominee, has found the nominee to be qualified for the position to which nominated and recommends that the Senate advise and consent to the nomination.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Labor,

________________________________

GILBERT S.C. KEITH-AGARAN, Chair