[ OUR OPINION ]
Citizen activism rocks
powerful labor unionARMED with a state attorney general's opinion, state Schools Superintendent Pat Hamamoto is ordering a ban on smoking throughout the public school system. The order, effective next Monday, defies the United Public Workers union's preposterous claim that janitors and cafeteria workers covered under its collective bargaining agreement can smoke on campus in defiance of federal law.
THE ISSUE
The state schools superintendent has banned smoking on public school grounds.
The move follows two years of citizen activism by Chris Dein-Gaughen, who became incensed from discovering that smoking was allowed in her son's Big Island elementary school. The 1994 federal Pro-Children Act requires that smoking be banned in all schools receiving federal money and authorizes fines of up to $1,000 a day for each continuing violation.
Dein-Gaughen proposed a state smoking ban at all schools to last year's Legislature, but the lawmakers remained firmly in the lap of UPW. The union cited a Hawaii law requiring that union contracts with the state "take precedence" over all conflicting state statutes, county ordinances and other rules. The UPW contract does not mention smoking, but the union contended that a smoking ban would impinge on working conditions.
The U.S. Department of Education put Hamamoto on notice in December that it was aware of the violations and asked her to report back. Meanwhile, this year's state House approved a bill that would allow janitors and cafeteria workers to continue puffing away at their school work stations through the remainder of their union contract, which expires next year.
In her report back to the federal agency, Hamamoto included an opinion by Attorney General Mark Bennett that the union's consent would not be needed to enforce the federally required smoking ban. Deborah A. Price, the under secretary of education, asked last week that Hamamoto report back again with steps detailing compliance with the smoking ban.
Dein-Gaughen remains amazed that the issue argued before the Legislature "was whether children's health was more or less important than accommodating the employee's addiction to tobacco." The greater issue -- not so amazing -- was whether legislators would dare enact a law that might offend Hawaii's powerful blue-collar public employees union. Hamamoto, with assistance from Dein-Gaughen, Bennett and federal officials, has taken them off the hook.
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Rohlfing nomination
deserves a hearingFREDERICK W. "Fritz" Rohlfing III is asking for a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on his confirmation to a U.S. district judgeship in Hawaii at the very time that partisan hostility about judicial nominations is at its peak. Rohlfing's negative evaluation by the American Bar Association has put him on the back burner since his nomination more than two years ago. However, his nomination is not being questioned on ideological grounds -- as are other nominations -- and the committee should afford him a hearing.
THE ISSUE
The nominee to fill a vacant federal judge position in Hawaii is asking for a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The nomination of William G. Myers to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has drawn opposition from environmentalists. The Judiciary Committee endorsed the nomination on Thursday along party lines, with all Democratic committee members voting against Myers, for two years the chief counsel for President Bush's Interior Department.
Democratic senators are seething from two controversial judicial appointments made during a congressional recess. Democrats had used filibusters to block confirmation of Charles W. Pickering Sr. and William H. Pryor to the appellate bench. Their appointments put them in robes temporarily. Meanwhile, Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota has threatened to halt further confirmations by filibuster.
Bush nominated Rohlfing in January 2002 to fill a temporary fourth slot on the Hawaii bench that is due to expire in October but could be made permanent by legislation. Of Bush's 220 nominees to the federal bench, Rohlfing is the only one to receive a unanimous rating of "not qualified" by the ABA's 15-member Standing Committee on the Judiciary.
Three other nominees have been rated as unqualified by a majority of the ABA committee. However, one was confirmed by the Senate and the other two are awaiting confirmation after receiving approval by the Judiciary Committee.
After his confirmation stalled because of the rating, we urged Rohlfing more than a year ago to either withdraw or ask for a hearing. According to Dale W. Lee, president of the Hawaii State Bar Association, which rated Rohlfing as highly qualified, Rohlfing recently asked for the hearing.
If the committee agrees to a hearing, the ABA will give the particulars of its opposition to his confirmation. Rohlfing's experience is most vulnerable to criticism, having been divided between the law and sports promotion.
