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Ronald Moon, Chief Justice of the Hawaii Supreme Court, and Michael Town, a Circuit Court Judge, joined host Randall Roth to address the meaning and importance of judicial independence in Hawaii's system of government. Moon argued that judges must be free to decide cases solely on their legal merits, without fear of reprisals from legislators, interest groups, or public opinion polls—a principle he said was undermined by criticism he characterized as factually inaccurate, including allegations that the Supreme Court acted at the direction of a union official. Town described the deliberative process of judging as grounded in law, procedure, and fact, not public reaction. Both guests discussed mechanisms for judicial accountability, including the Judicial Selection Commission's retention process, performance evaluations by attorneys, and the Judicial Conduct Commission. The conversation also covered the judiciary's eight-year pay freeze, which Moon said had created a distracting and potentially compromising dynamic with the legislature. The central question remains how Hawaii can balance the need for judicial independence against the public's legitimate interest in holding judges accountable.
Transcript
Read or download the full transcript (.txt). Speaker labels were assigned automatically and may contain errors.
Companion newspaper commentaries
Commentaries by the guests, published in The Honolulu Advertiser around the broadcast.
