Seeing a need, Judge Ezra to take gavel to Texas

After serving more than 24 years on Hawaii’s federal bench, Senior U.S. District Judge David Ezra is leaving this month to preside over federal courts in Texas.

Ezra, who has lived most of his life in Hawaii, considers the move permanent.

He will relocate to San Antonio, headquarters of Texas’ western district along the Mexican border, one of the busiest districts in the country with a heavy load of immigration and drug cases.

An underlying reason for the move is that his wife, Judy, is from the Lone Star state and her family is there.

"She followed me to Hawaii when I was a young man, and I promised her that if there was the opportunity, I would take her back home," he said in a recent interview.

Paul Alston, president of the Hawaii chapter of the Federal Bar Association, said Ezra was considered one of the top "A-list lawyers" who gave up an active practice when he moved to the federal bench.

"We knew he was a good lawyer, and we knew he would do a good job and he has," Alston said.

As a judge, Ezra "had a knack of taking tough, big controversial cases and solving them," Alston said. "He’s really going to be missed."

Ezra was nominated by President Ronald Reagan to the lifetime position and became the youngest ever to serve as a U.S. district judge for Hawaii when he was sworn in at age 40 in 1988.

He served as a full-time judge for 24 years until June, when he turned 65 and became a senior judge, a status that allows a reduced caseload with the same $174,000 yearly salary.

Ezra has continued handling cases since becoming a senior judge. Those Hawaii cases will be assigned to other federal judges here.

Ezra’s tenure as an active, full-time judge is the longest for any federal district judge in Hawaii.

Other federal judges here, notably Martin Pence and Samuel King, were on the bench here a long period of time but served in their later years as senior judges.

President Barack Obama nominated Derrick Watson, an assistant U.S. attorney, to fill the vacancy left when Ezra took senior status.

If the appointment is confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Watson will join the Hawaii federal bench, which has three other full-time district judges, two senior district judges and three magistrate judges.

Chief Justice John Roberts approved Ezra’s Texas assignment.

Ezra said Hawaii has a moderate federal caseload, but Texas’ western district is swamped with immigration and drug cases that have created "judicial emergencies."

Austin and El Paso are among the cities in the district.

"I’m going to help put out judicial fires, so to speak, because I have experience," he said. "I’m young enough to do that."

He said federal judges in Texas have been welcoming, and he’s looking forward to helping them.

"The simple fact is they need my service along the border worse than they need my services here," he said.

Ezra said he knows many Texas lawyers and pointed out he earned his college and law school degrees from St. Mary’s University and St. Mary’s School of Law in San Antonio.

"It’s not as if I’m showing up as some sort of carpetbagger," he said.

Born in Ohio, Ezra was young when his family moved to Hawaii. He graduated from Saint Louis School in 1965 before earning his degrees at the San Antonio campuses. While in law school he met his wife.

After serving in the Army Reserve, Ezra joined Anthony, Hoddick, Reinwald and O’Connor. In 1980 he left to form the law firm of Ezra, O’Connor, Moon and Tam and remained there until his federal judgeship.

As a federal judge, Ezra presided over thousands of civil and criminal cases.

His most significant include overseeing state agencies to ensure they comply with federal mandates to provide services to public school children with learning disabilities and adequate care for the seriously mentally ill.

In the so-called Felix consent decree case, which lasted more than a decade until 2005, the state moved from what one expert referred as the "dark age into compliance with constitutional norms," Ezra said.

The result was establishing a process in which parents, students and educators could work together to provide appropriate education for children with special needs, Ezra said.

Alston was one of the lawyers representing the students in the complex litigation.

Ezra also oversaw the state mental health system, including the Hawaii State Hospital, which had fallen below federal constitutional standards in the caring for the mentally ill.

"We were able to get that turned around," he said.

Ezra lifted federal oversight in 2006.

"I love Hawaii’s people," Ezra said. "I love being here. I care for and respect my colleagues. I have a great deal of aloha for the Hawaii Bar.

"I’m going to miss Hawaii tremendously."

If he retired, Ezra would get a federal pension equal to his salary.

But he said he’s not retiring — for the same reason he left his law firm, where he was making much more money.

"It was an opportunity to do something I believed in, and I hope to be of some service to my community and my country," he said.