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Gov. Neil Abercrombie must now name Hawaii’s next associate justice on the Hawaii Supreme Court from a list of candidates that includes four state judges, the state public defender and a private attorney.
The state Judicial Selection Commission submitted the names Monday to fill the vacancy on the court when Associate Justice Simeon Acoba leaves late next month because of the state Constitution’s mandatory retirement provision at age 70 for judges and justices.
Acoba turns 70 in March.
Under the state Constitution, the governor has 30 days from Monday to make his nomination, which is subject to state Senate approval.
The appointment would be Abercrombie’s third on the high court, making him the first governor since John Waihee to select a majority on the five-member Supreme Court.
The 10-year appointment is also significant because it will ensure a lasting judicial legacy by the governor because the current justices’ terms don’t expire until the 2020s.
Acoba has a reputation as the most liberal member of the court. Former Gov. Ben Cayetano appointed Acoba to the high court in 2000.
The list of six candidates also has three circuit judges who are Cayetano appointees.
Abercrombie’s first two high-court selections, Sabrina McKenna and Richard Pollack, were also circuit judges appointed by Cayetano.
The six candidates are:
» Craig Nakamura, 57, chief judge of the Intermediate Court of Appeals. Nakamura, a graduate of ‘Iolani High School, the University of Hawaii and Harvard Law School, served as an assistant U.S. attorney in Hawaii before Gov. Linda Lingle named him a state appellate judge in 2004 and later appointed him chief appellate judge in 2009. He is the only candidate among the four judges on the list appointed by a Republican governor.
» Derrick Chan, 58, chief circuit judge for Oahu. Chan graduated from Kalani High School, the University of Hawaii and California Western School of Law. He served as a deputy attorney general, deputy public defender and first deputy prosecutor for Kauai before Cayetano appointed him as a circuit judge in 2000.
» Richard Perkins, 63, circuit judge. Perkins is a graduate of Kamehameha Schools, the University of Hawaii and the University of Southern California law school. He has been a private attorney but also served as a deputy public defender in the 1970s and at the state Senate as an assistant clerk, majority attorney and the Senate president’s administrative assistant. He was appointed by Cayetano as a circuit judge in 1994.
» Michael Wilson, 60, circuit judge. Wilson graduated from Kailua High School, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Antioch School of Law. He was a partner in Pavey Wilson & Glickstein and Hart Wolff & Wilson. He served as Cayetano’s director of the Department of Land and Natural Resources. Cayetano appointed him a circuit judge in 2000.
» John Tonaki, 53, state public defender. Tonaki graduated from ‘Iolani High School, the University of Hawaii and the Hastings College of Law. He spent his career with the public defender’s office as a deputy, head of the felony division, then head of the office since 2000.
» Jeffrey Crabtree, 59, a consumer protection lawyer, the only candidate without judicial experience. He was born in Maine and graduated from Punahou School, the University of San Francisco and New York University School of Law. He spent his career in private practice and was with Bronster, Crabtree and Hoshibata before he started his own practice in 2007.
The commission said Monday the six were selected among 16 applicants — 14 men and two women. Also, the applicants included nine judges and five private attorneys.
The commission said three were 41 to 50 years old, eight were 51 to 60 and five were 61 to 70. They held licenses to practice ranging from 14 to 35 years.
The high-court position carries a salary that has been increased to $206,184, one reason some believe the vacancy drew more applicants than in the recent past.
Only seven applied for the 2011 high-court vacancy filled by McKenna and nine for the 2012 vacancy filled by Pollack.
Abercrombie’s appointment may be the last for a governor for years.
Even though the justices’ terms end in the 2020s, the governor doesn’t get to reappoint them. Under the state Constitution, the nine-member selection commission has the sole authority in deciding whether justices and judges are retained for succeeding terms.
Also, a constitutional amendment that will be placed on the election ballot this year will ask voters whether the mandatory retirement age should be increased to 80 from 70.
If adopted, Pollack, who turns 70 in 2020 before the end of his 10-year term, might not have to retire at that time.
And the nominees are … The state Judicial Selection Commission has presented the governor with six candidates to become the next state Supreme Court justice:
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