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Hawaii Supreme Court justice vacancy (June 2020)
| Hawaii Supreme Court |
|---|
 |
| Pollack vacancy |
| Date: June 30, 2020 |
| Status: Seat filled |
| Nomination |
| Nominee: Todd Eddins |
| Date: Nomination: October 23, 2020 Confirmation: November 19, 2020 |
Hawaii Governor David Ige (D) appointed Todd Eddins to the Hawaii Supreme Court on October 23, 2020. The Hawaii State Senate confirmed Eddins to succeed Justice Richard W. Pollack on November 19, 2020.[1][2] Eddins was Ige's first nominee to the five-member supreme court.
The seat became vacant when Pollack retired on June 30, 2020, after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70 years.[3]
Under Hawaii law as of June 2020, state supreme court justices were selected through the assisted appointment method. The governor chose an appointee from a list of candidates submitted by the judicial nominating commission. The nominee required confirmation from the Hawaii State Senate.[4]
Ballotpedia has compiled the following resources on the process to fill the Hawaii Supreme Court vacancy:
- An overview of the appointee.
- A list of finalists recommended to the governor.
- An overview of the selection process.
- An overview of the court following the vacancy.
- An overview of the justice who left office.
- An overview of the Hawaii Supreme Court.
- A list of other state supreme court appointments in 2020.
The appointee
- See also: Todd Eddins
Eddins became a judge of the O'ahu First Circuit of Hawaii in 2017 after being appointed by Gov. David Ige (D) on February 9. The Hawaii State Senate confirmed Eddins on March 3, 2017.[5][6]
Before his appointment to the O'ahu First Circuit, Eddins worked as a trial lawyer for the Office of the Public Defender. He also served as a clerk for Justice Yoshimi Hayashi of the Hawaii Supreme Court.[5]
Eddins earned an undergraduate degree from the College of William & Mary and a J.D. from the University of Hawaii, where he was the executive editor of the University of Hawaii Law Review.[5]
Appointee candidates and nominations
Finalists
The judicial nominating commission recommended four nominees to Gov. Ige.[7]
- Judge Todd Eddins, O`ahu First Circuit Court
- David Forman, Director of the Environmental Law Program at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa William S. Richardson School of Law
- Judge Darolyn Lendio Heim, O`ahu First Circuit District Court
- Benjamin Lowenthal, Deputy public defender at the Office of the Public Defender in Wailuku, Maui.
The selection process
- See also: Judicial selection in Hawaii
As of June 2020, the five justices of the Hawaii Supreme Court were selected using the assisted appointment method. The judicial nominating commission would recommend four to six candidates to the governor, who would select one. The nominee had to be confirmed by the Hawaii State Senate before they could join the court. Newly appointed justices would serve 10-year terms.[4][8]
If justices wished to serve additional terms, they had to be retained by the nominating commission. Subsequent terms would last 10 years.[8]
Judicial nominating commission
As of June 2020, the judicial selecting commission, which evaluated and recommended candidates to fill judicial vacancies, was composed of nine members, no more than four of whom could be lawyers:
- Two members, appointed by the governor (only one of whom could be an attorney);
- Four members, appointed by the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House of Representatives (two apiece);
- One member, appointed by the chief justice of the state supreme court; and
- Two members, both lawyers, selected by the Hawaii State Bar Association.
Commissioners served staggered six-year terms and were limited to one term each.[4]
Makeup of the court
- See also: Hawaii Supreme Court
Following Pollack's retirement, the Hawaii Supreme Court included the following members:
| ■ Paula Nakayama | Appointed by Gov. John Waihee III (D) in 1993 | |
| ■ Mark Recktenwald | Appointed by Gov. Linda Lingle (R) in 2010 | |
| ■ Sabrina McKenna | Appointed by Gov. Neil Abercrombie (D) in 2011 | |
| ■ Michael Wilson | Appointed by Gov. Abercrombie in 2014 |
About Justice Pollack
- See also: Richard W. Pollack
Richard Pollack joined the Hawaii Supreme Court in 2012. He was appointed by Gov. Neil Abercrombie (D) and unanimously confirmed by the Hawaii State Senate on June 29, 2012. Before joining the state supreme court, Pollack was a judge in the O'ahu First Circuit, 7th Division, from 2000 to 2012. He was a public defender from 1987 to 2000.
Pollack obtained a B.A. with honors from the University of California at Santa Barbara and a J.D. from the Hastings School of Law.
Hawaii Supreme Court
- See also: Hawaii Supreme Court
Founded in 1959, the Hawaii Supreme Court is the state's court of last resort and has five judgeships. The current acting chief of the court is Sabrina S. McKenna.[9]
As of October 2025, four judges on the court were appointed by a Democratic governor and no judges on the court were appointed by a Republican governor.
The Hawaii Supreme Court meets in the meets in Aliʻiōlani Hale building in Honolulu, Hawaii.[9]
In Hawaii, state supreme court justices are selected through assisted appointment with a hybrid judicial nominating commission. Justices are appointed by the governor with the assistance of a commission who has no majority of members selected either by the governor or the state Bar Association. There are 10 states that use this selection method. To read more about the assisted appointment of judges, click here.
Other state supreme court appointments in 2020
- See also: State supreme court vacancies, 2020
The following table lists vacancies to state supreme courts that opened in 2020. Click the link under the Court column for a particular vacancy for more information on that vacancy.
Click here for vacancies that opened in 2021.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Honolulu Civil Beat, "Senate Confirms Todd Eddins To Hawaii Supreme Court," November 19, 2020
- ↑ Governor.Hawaii.gov, "Governor Ige Appoints First Circuit Judge To Hawai‘i Supreme Court," October 23, 2020
- ↑ Civil Beat, "A New Direction For The Hawaii Supreme Court?" June 30, 2020
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Hawaii; Judicial Nomination Commissions," archived January 13, 2012 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "nom" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Maui Now, "Governor Appoints Three to First Circuit Court," February 9, 2017
- ↑ Hawaii State Judiciary, "Chan, Hiraoka, Remigio, Eddins Confirmed by Senate," March 3, 2017
- ↑ Maui Now, "Maui’s Benjamin Lowenthal Among Four Nominees Being Considered for State Supreme Court," September 29, 2020
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Hawaii," archived October 2, 2014
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Hawaii State Judiciary, "Hawaii Supreme Court," accessed September 14, 2021
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Federal courts:
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: District of Hawaii • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: District of Hawaii
State courts:
Hawaii Supreme Court • Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals • Hawaii Circuit Courts • Hawaii District Courts • Hawaii Family Courts
State resources:
Courts in Hawaii • Hawaii judicial elections • Judicial selection in Hawaii
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