STAND. COM. REP. NO. 321

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 886

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 886 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT PROPOSING AN AMENDMENT TO ARTICLE VI, SECTION 3, OF THE HAWAII STATE CONSTITUTION TO INCREASE THE MANDATORY RETIREMENT AGE FOR STATE JUSTICES AND JUDGES,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to propose a constitutional amendment to raise the mandatory retirement age for state judges and justices from seventy to eighty years of age.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of the Attorney General; International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Local 142; and League of Women Voters of Hawaii.  Testimony in opposition to this measure was submitted by the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney, City and County of Honolulu; and one private individual.  The Office of the Public Defender submitted comments.

 

     Your Committee finds that there are a number of judges and justices who are willing and able to serve on the bench past the mandatory retirement age of seventy.  While your Committee recognizes that a mandatory retirement age ensures continued opportunities to serve on the bench, it believes that judges and justices who are willing and able to serve should be allowed to do so until the age of eighty.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 886 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Labor,

 

 

 

____________________________

CLAYTON HEE, Chair