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Michael D. Wilson (Hawaii Supreme Court)
Michael Wilson was a judge of the Hawaii Supreme Court. He assumed office on April 17, 2014. He left office on March 31, 2023.
Wilson became a member of the court by appointment. He was nominated by Gov. Neil Abercrombie (D) on February 18, 2014, following the retirement of Justice Simeon Acoba.[1] Wilson was confirmed by the Hawaii Senate on March 17, 2014, and sworn into office on April 17.[2][3][4]
Wilson resigned early in March 2023.[5] To learn more about this vacancy, click here.
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country. As part of this study, we assigned each justice a Confidence Score describing our confidence in the degree of partisanship exhibited by the justices' past partisan behavior, before they joined the court.[6] Wilson received a confidence score of Mild Democrat.[7] Click here to read more about this study.
Wilson previously served as a judge on the O'ahu First Circuit Court. Gov. Ben Cayetano (D) nominated him and the state Senate approved his nomination by a unanimous vote in 2000. He served there until his state supreme court appointment.[8]
Biography
Wilson received an undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a J.D. from the Antioch School of Law.[9][10]
Before becoming a judge, Wilson was a partner at Pavey Wilson & Glickstein and Hart Wolff & Wilson. He was the director of the Department of Land and Natural Resources and chaired the Board of Land and Natural Resources. Wilson also chaired the State Water Commission and was a trustee of the Kahoolawe Island Reserve Commission. He served as a judge on the O'ahu First Circuit Court from 2000 to 2014.[1][9][10]
Wilson was a founding member of the Global Judicial Institute on the Environment.[10]
Appointments
2014
Wilson was appointed to the state supreme court in April 2014.[10]
Ratings
The Hawaii State Bar Association rated Wilson as "unqualified" to serve as a supreme court justice. Gregory Markham, president-elect of the bar association informed the Hawaii Senate Judiciary Committee and Labor Committee about the group's rating of Wilson during his testimony on March 5, 2014.[11] The chairman of the senate committee, Clayton Hee, responded critically to the association's negative rating of Wilson because of the group's confidential review process. The bar's president indicated in a letter to the committee that Wilson's rating was based on an alleged lack of professionalism, questions about his treatment of women in the workplace and work ethic issues. Senator Rosalyn Baker, the only senator to vote against Wilson's confirmation, claimed she voted against him after receiving confidential complaints from women about his behavior.[3]
Analysis
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
Last updated: June 15, 2020
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.
The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on an ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. The scores were based on seven factors, including but not limited to party registration.[12]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[13]
- Mild Republican
- Strong Republican
This justice's Confidence Score, as well as the factors contributing to that score, is presented below. The information below was current as of June 2020.
Michael
Wilson
Hawaii
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Mild Democrat - Judicial Selection Method:
Assisted appointment through governor controlled judicial nominating commission - Key Factors:
- Appointed by a Democratic governor
- State was a Democratic trifecta at time of appointment
Partisan Profile
Details:
Wilson was appointed by Gov. Neil Abercrombie (D) while Hawaii was a Democratic trifecta.
State supreme court judicial selection in Hawaii
- See also: Judicial selection in Hawaii
The five justices of the Hawaii Supreme Court are selected through the assisted appointment method. The Hawaii Judicial Selection Commission is responsible for screening candidates and submitting a shortlist to the governor. The commission is made up of nine members: two appointed by the governor, two appointed by the state Senate president, two appointed by the state House speaker, two appointed by the Hawaii Bar Association, and one appointed by the chief justice of the supreme court. The governor must appoint a judge from the commission's shortlist and the appointee must then be confirmed by the Hawaii State Senate.[14]
Justices serve for 10 years after their appointment. To continue to serve on the court, they must receive a majority vote of the selection commission.[14]
Qualifications
To serve on this court, a judge must be:[14]
- a U.S. resident and citizen;
- a resident and citizen of the state;
- a practicing attorney in the state for at least ten years; and
- under the age of 70 (retirement by 70 is mandatory retirement).
Chief justice
In Hawaii, the position of chief justice is a specific seat on the court (similar to the Supreme Court of the United States) rather than a peer-selected leadership position. The chief justice is appointed in the same manner as the other justices on the court.[14]
Vacancies
If a midterm vacancy occurs, the position is filled just as it would be if the vacancy occurred at the end of a justice's term. The governor appoints a successor from a list provided by a nominating commission, and the appointee faces confirmation from the state Senate. Newly appointed justices serve full 10-year terms.[14]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Star-Advertiser, "Governor names Michael Wilson to state Supreme Court," February 18, 2014
- ↑ Honolulu Civil Beat, "Committee Sends Supreme Court Nomination to Full Hawaii Senate," March 7, 2014
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Honolulu Star Advertiser, "Senate confirms Wilson to state supreme court," March 17, 2014
- ↑ Hawaii Judiciary, "The Honorable Michael D. Wilson to be Sworn In as Associate Justice," April 2014
- ↑ Hawai`i State Judiciary, "Celebrating Justice Michael D. Wilson Day," accessed June 16, 2023
- ↑ We calculated confidence scores by collecting several data points such as party registration, donations, and previous political campaigns.
- ↑ The five possible confidence scores were: Strong Democrat, Mild Democrat, Indeterminate, Mild Republican, and Strong Republican.
- ↑ Hawaii State Legislature, "GM 208," March 28, 2000
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Hawaii State Legislature, "STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2870 Honolulu, Hawaii, 2000 RE: GOV. MSG. NO. 208," January 22, 2009
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 Hawai'i State Judiciary, "Associate Justice Michael D. Wilson," accessed June 25, 2021
- ↑ Pacific Business News, "Hawaii State Bar Association rates state Supreme Court nominee Wilson as 'unqualified'," March 6, 2014
- ↑ The seven factors were party registration, donations made to partisan candidates, donations made to political parties, donations received from political parties or bodies with clear political affiliation, participation in political campaigns, the partisanship of the body responsible for appointing the justice, and state trifecta status when the justice joined the court.
- ↑ An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 Hawai'i State Judiciary, "Overview of the Hawai`i Judicial System," accessed April 18, 2025
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
