Earlier this month, Gov. David Ige nominated Daniel Gluck of the state Ethics Commission to the Intermediate Court of Appeals (ICA), the second-highest court in Hawaii, and the Senate Judiciary Committee will be holding the Senate confirmation hearings on Tuesday. We are concerned about this appointment in the context of a larger pattern of racial and gender inequality.
State legislators share our concern that Gov. Ige’s judiciary appointments have been 71% male and 71% white or Japanese. The candidates for the ICA vacancy Opens in a new tab included three Hawaiian women attorneys with far more trial experience in the appellate and Supreme courts. One is a District Court judge. Gluck is the only white male out of a list of six candidates, and he has the least trial experience of them all.
We are not questioning Gluck’s integrity nor whether he is a good attorney; we instead focus on experience and the need for diversity. Court records show that Gluck has served five Circuit Court cases and eight appellate cases, while Hawaiian attorneys Taryn Gifford has served in 192 circuit and 176 appellate cases; Summer Kupau-Odo served in 135 circuit and 65 appellate cases; and Sonja McCullen served in 32 circuit and 311 appellate cases.
When presented with a clear opportunity to balance the court so it is more reflective of Hawaii’s diversity, Ige’s decision reflects the ongoing perpetuation of a system of white and Asian power and privilege.
This is not the first time legislators have raised concerns about Ige’s judicial appointments. The last appointment by Ige to the ICA was made to a Japanese nominee, his high school classmate and former campaign manager.
This is a troubling consolidation of power by Gov. Ige. Gluck’s appointment is a part of a longer history and pattern of racially and gender-biased actions that impede justice. Laws and legal decisions change with the values of a society, and that is why diversity in the judiciary is key to a more just society. Judicial decision-making must be based on a personal understanding of Hawaii’s unique history, cultures, worldviews and values.
There are no Hawaiian, Filipino, Pacific Islander or Black judges at the Hawaii Supreme Court or Intermediate Court of Appeals. It has been 20 years since there has been a Hawaiian justice on the Supreme Court and 30 years since a Hawaiian nominee has been appointed to the ICA. We call on leaders to assure that this appointment and the ones that Ige will make during the rest of his term work to remedy these glaring inequities.
As we honor the memory of kanaka maoli political leader and scholar-activist Haunani-Kay Trask, we see new generations of kanaka maoli leaders who have been inspired by her words. Under the revitalization of Hawaiian language, knowledge and practices, these leaders are taking their places in guiding us into a more abundant future. Yet as Trask has taught us, politics in Hawaii continues to be dominated by white and Asians who are settlers on kanaka maoli ancestral lands.
We only have to look at the Hawaii Legislature to see that 65% is dominated by Asian settlers, while 25% is made up of white settlers and only 10% by kanaka maoli, despite the fact that kanaka maoli are 20% of the general population. Kanaka maoli have stewarded lands and waters for hundreds of generations, and it has been only 123 years since the forced annexation of Hawaii. As Trask reminded us, Hawaiian leadership is key to correcting historically-rooted injustices, to protecting Hawaii’s lands and waters and our richly diverse communities.
The judicial confirmation hearing on July 27 will be our chance to voice the need for a judiciary that better reflects the diversity of our islands.
Candace Fujikane is a University of Hawaii English professor and author of “Mapping Abundance for a Planetary Future: Kanaka Maoli and Critical Settler Cartographies in Hawai‘i”; Camille Kalama is a Native Hawaiian attorney and executive director of Ko‘ihonua; Dean Saranillio is a New York University professor of social and cultural analysis, and author of “Unsustainable Empire: Alternative Histories of Hawai‘i Statehood.” Noelani Goodyear-Ka‘opua, a UH political science professor and author of “The Seeds We Planted: Portraits of a Native Hawaiian Charter School,” contributed to this.
