It seemed to have good reason. After all, a Circuit Court ruling in May disagreed with contentions by the Waihee and Cayetano administrations that four merit selection constitutional amendments approved by voters in 1994 were improperly put on the ballot and thus invalid.
Not so, unfortunately. The Cayetano administration will appeal the case to the Supreme Court, where Circuit Judge Herbert Shimabukuro, after he made his findings on the facts, said it really belongs.
It is not a trivial matter, insists Attorney General Margery Bronster. She is asking the high court to expedite a ruling because the future membership on the quite-powerful Judicial Selection Commission will be uncertain until then. The issue is whether the Legislature properly gave then-Gov. John Waihee the required 10-day advance notice of the final wording of the amendments it was proposing.
This is important, Bronster says, because the governor cannot veto amendment submissions. He thus needs the full allowed time to consider and perhaps lobby against them.
Legislators in 1994 did provide the two-thirds vote of both houses needed for fast-tracking submission through a single session instead of two. Judge Shimabukuro even ruled that the Legislature did its duty on notification, but then added it's really a Supreme Court matter.
The attorney general's case seems to hang on a slim reed, but Bronster says she will carry it to the finish because of the issue's importance.
The affected amendments would diminish the role of the governor and chief justice in appointing members to the Judicial Selection Commission, require at least one neighbor islander on the commission,limit commissioners to six years' service, shorten to a minimum of four and a maximum of six the list of judicial nominees submitted to the governor for vacancies on the Supreme Court, intermediate appellate court and Circuit Courts, add a Senate confirmation process for district judges nominated by the chief justice and require Senate hearings on all judgeship nominations before confirmation.
In choosing the nine judicial selection commissioners, the governor and chief justice each lose a seat and their combined majority.
The Senate president and House speaker each gain one. The governor will appoint only two instead of three, the chief justice only one instead of two, the Senate president and House speaker two each instead of one. The bar association will continue to elect two. The rule of no more than four attorneys on the commission remains.
If the Supreme Court should invalidate the amendments it would be at least 1998 before they could be resubmitted by the Legislature.
The Citizens' Conference does have other achievements "in the bag."
The 1993 conference was responding to public perceptions that the judge selection process remained secretive and politicized even after the 1978 Constitutional Convention created the selection commission as the keystone of a merit system. A quiet 1993 goal was to head off public demands for election of judges.