Isle lawyer
Clifton has shot at
9th Circuit seat

Republicans want to fill the
slot while they control
the Senate

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By Richard Borreca
Star-Bulletin

RICHARD CLIFTON, a partner in the law firm of Cades Schutte Fleming and Wright, appears to be one of the leading candidates for appointment to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Clifton, who has served as volunteer attorney for the local Republican Party, was also legal counsel for the unsuccessful gubernatorial campaigns of Pat Saiki and Linda Lingle.

State Rep. Barbara Marumoto (R, Waialae), chairwoman of the Hawaii Bush for President committee, said she has written the White House supporting Clifton.

Clifton declined to talk about the possible nomination, except to say he would be interested in a federal judicial appointment.

He is a graduate of Princeton University and Yale Law School and was admitted to the Hawaii bar in 1976.

Local attorney James Duffy had been nominated by President Clinton for the position on the federal appeals court, but his name was one of 62 withdrawn by the Bush administration.

Duffy has said he still hopes to be renominated.

Every state is allowed at least one federal appellate court seat. Duffy had been nominated in 1999. Hawaii has not had an active judge of the 9th Circuit since Judge Herbert Choy became a senior judge in 1984.

YESTERDAY, Republican Party Chairwoman Linda Lingle declined to comment on the possible Clifton nomination but said she and Travis Thompson, national committeeman, and Miriam Hellreich, national committeewoman, formed a selection committee to interview possible candidates for the federal appointments.

Federal appointments are usually recommended by the ranking members of the congressional delegation and the governor, when they are of the same party as the president, but because Hawaii has no GOP members of congress or governor, Lingle said the job falls to her as leader of the party. Marumoto as chairwoman of the Bush campaign also has a hand in it.

"The White House has really been doing its homework," Marumoto said. "I have had four calls in one week with questions about people's background. In fact, I talked with the White House this morning," Marumoto said.

Lingle said there is a sense of urgency to the search for a federal judgeship because Bush wants to get the appointments cleared while the Senate is still controlled by the GOP.

Several persons were interviewed for the 9th Circuit post, Lingle said, but she would not give their names.

"We wanted people of high moral character, people who were well qualified and people who would have a good reflection on the Republican Party," she said.

Marumoto praised Clifton as being low-key and judicial -- "someone who is straightforward, honest and well respected."

Both Lingle and Marumoto said that the local GOP did not impose any political qualifications on federal judicial nominations.

"We didn't ask if someone was pro-choice," Lingle said. She added that the panel was concerned that the appointees be people "who believed in interpreting the law, not making it."