Bar association won’t
protest Roth’s support
for Lingle

By Mike Yuen
Star-Bulletin

The Hawaii State Bar Association won't challenge the endorsement of Republican gubernatorial candidate Linda Lingle that its president-elect, Randy Roth, has made.

The board of directors of the 4,000-member organization concluded that since Roth made his endorsement as an individual and was not acting on behalf of the bar association, it should respect his First Amendment right to free speech and association.

Several attorneys have complained about Roth's endorsement, and one of them, Guy Sibilla, addressed the board during its closed-door meeting last night. Roth also spoke.

After the meeting, bar President James Kawachika said, "We don't see a problem as long as (Roth) disclaims that he's speaking on behalf of the bar association."

Roth said he was pleased with the board's decision.

He told the Star-Bulletin that his endorsement of Lingle should not be a problem because it was made before he becomes bar president next year. If he were currently bar president, he would not have publicly backed her, because he could then be perceived as speaking on behalf of the state's legal community; the bar president makes numerous speeches on behalf of the organization, he noted.

Moreover, Roth said he believes that his current visibility is due more to having been one of the authors of the scathing "Broken Trust" critique which prompted a state investigation of the Bishop Estate charitable trust - and not as bar president-elect.

Roth, also a University of Hawaii law professor, is discontinuing another of his relatively high-profile endeavors, his "Price of Paradise" radio show, to concentrate on helping Lingle, Maui's mayor.

When Roth endorsed Lingle on Wednesday, he stressed he was doing so as an individual and not on behalf of any group or organization.

Sibilla, in a hand-delivered letter to Kawachika, contended that Roth's endorsement "will politicize the bar, alienate its membership and unduly utilize his official position with the bar association to influence this important political election."

Prior to last night's meeting, the board received three letters from its members in support of Sibilla's position and eight against.

The isle bar association has no policy or rule prohibiting its officers or directors from engaging in political activity, provided that it is done on a purely personal basis.