Susan Oki Mollway

Susan Oki Mollway
Senior Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii
Incumbent
Assumed office November 6, 2015
Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii
In office June 16, 2009 – November 6, 2015
Preceded by	Helen Gillmor
Succeeded by	John Michael Seabright
Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii
In office August 4, 1998 – November 6, 2015
Appointed by	Bill Clinton
Preceded by	Harold Fong
Succeeded by	Jill Otake
Personal details
Born	Susan Naomi Oki (1950-11-06) November 6, 1950 (age 73) Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii
Education	University of Hawaiʻi (BA, MA) Harvard University (JD) Duke University (LLM)

Susan Naomi Oki Mollway (born November 6, 1950)^[1] is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii and the first East Asian woman and Japanese-American woman ever appointed to a life-time position on the federal bench.^[2][3]

Early life and education

Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Susan Oki Mollway earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature from the University of Hawaiʻi in 1971 and a Master of Arts degree in English literature from the University of Hawaiʻi in 1973.^[4]

Before pursuing law, she taught both English literature and language at University of Hawaii and Takushoku University in Tokyo from 1973 to 1976.[1] She graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School with a Juris Doctor in 1981,^[4] where she was the editor in chief of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review^[5] In 2020, Mollway received her Master of Laws in judicial studies from Duke University School of Law.^[6]

Personal

She married Daniel Mollway and they had a son named Dylan Marcus.^[7][8][9]

Professional career

Mollway taught English and worked at an English-language publisher in Tokyo from 1975 to 1977.^[10] From 1981 until 1989, she worked at Cades Schutte Fleming & Wright, a private legal practice, in Honolulu and became a partner for the law firm in 1986.^[11] From 1988 to 1989, she was an adjunct professor of law at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in the William S. Richardson School of Law.^[11]

Notable cases

Hawaiian Airlines, Inc. v. Norris

On June 20, 1994, Mollway successfully argued for the respondent, Norris, who was fired as an aircraft mechanic at Hawaiian Airlines due to his refusal to sign a maintenance record for a plane he deemed unsafe.^[12] The case was brought to the State Court as a violation of public policy expressed in federal statues, but it was later dismissed under the Railway Labor Act.^[13] However, the State Supreme Court reversed this claim in a unanimous decision.^[13] Mollway's argument affirmed the judgement that the Railway Labor Act does not preempt state law causes of action.^[14]

Publications

Mollway is the author of The First Fifteen: How Asian Women Became Federal Judges (Rutgers University Press 2021) which details the stories of the first fifteen Asian American women judges to be appointed to lifetime federal, judicial positions in autobiographical and biographical styles.^[15]

She is also a contributing author towards the biography collection Called from Within: Early Women Lawyers of Hawai'i (1992) which tells the early stories of the women lawyers admitted to Hawaii's bar before its statehood.^[16]

Associations

Mollway is a current member and director of multiple professional associations including:^[17]

• Hawaii Women Lawyer's Association
• Hawaii Women's Legal Foundation
• Federal Judges Association
• District Judges Association
• Hawai’i’ American Civil Liberties Union Board
• Hawaii State Bar
• American Judicature Society
• Judicial Conference Committee on Audits and Administrative Office Accountability

Federal judicial service

Path to the bench

Mollway never perceived herself as disadvantaged due to Hawaii's multicultural environment.^[18] However, she only learned that she was the first Asian-American women to serve as an Article III federal judge after her nomination to the federal bench in 1998.^[18]

The process preceding Mollway's nomination to federal judgeship pended for two-and-a-half years and was a result of Mollway's identity, associations, and environment of the time.^[19][20] Following the announcement of her nomination, she received considerable scrutiny for her position on Hawai'i's American Civil Liberties Union Board, which openly and strongly supported the legalization of same-sex marriage, despite having never voted on a position the ACLU should take.^[19][21] T

There was also pushback and ideological hazing from the Republican Senate at the time.^[22] In the last three months, they had only allowed one woman to be confirmed to the bench while confirming fifteen men.^[23] Mollway was not alone in the delay of her nomination as many other women and minority nominees faced delay by the Senate.^[24] In addition, the aftermath within the Senate, due to the 1996 presidential election, further prolonged her nomination and confirmation.^[25]

The difficulty of Mollway's confirmation process affected her private practice due to the pending nature of her nomination which made the number of clients willing to hire her shrink.^[19]

Nomination and confirmation

In December 1995, President Bill Clinton nominated Mollway to serve on the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii as a Democratic nominee following the death of Judge Harold Michael Fong.^[26] In 1996, the United States Senate lapsed her nomination. She wasn't renominated to the same seat until January 7, 1997.^[27][28]

The Senate confirmed Mollway on June 22, 1998, and she received her commission on June 23, 1998. The Senate vote was 56 in favor of her appointment and 34 opposed.^[29] She served as Chief Judge from 2009 to 2015. She assumed senior status and retired from active service on November 6, 2015.^[30]

Mollway served on the Ninth Circuit Pacific Islands Committee and the Ninth Circuit Conference Executive Committee.^[31][32] Mollway was the chairperson of the 9th Circuit Jury Instructions Committee.^[33] Mollway helped to oversee the $121-million renovation of the federal district court facilities in Honolulu^[34] and worked on creating a Re-Entry program in the United States District Court, District of Hawaii.^[35]

Throughout her career, she authored over 112 opinions and was assigned or referred around 1,100 cases.^[36]

Notable cases

United States v. Lee

In 2006, Mollway was the presiding judge over United States v. Lee, the largest trafficking prosecution case.^[37] The case was a result of a 22 count indictment against five defendants. They were charged for trafficking and subjecting workers in Samoa to involuntary servitude.[2]

Day v Apoliona

In 2007, Mollway reinstated a previously dismissed lawsuit against the Office of Hawaiian Affairs by native Hawaiians.^[38] Six plaintiffs without native Hawaiian ancestry but high blood quantum filed a motion to intervene, aiming to safeguard the rights of a million Hawaiian residents to share in the ceded lands trust.^[39]

At the time, Mollway had a law clerk who was Native Hawaiian with high blood quantum of Native Hawaiian ancestry.^[19] As consequence, she received a motion from an attorney who wanted to bring a motion that that law clerk could not work on the case on the basis of prejudice.^[19] Mollway denied the motion claiming that the dispute was ruled on the basis of merit and that there was no personal interest in this case that would justify the attorney's motion.^[19]

Mollway determined that the plaintiffs lacked the right to challenge the constitutionality of federally mandated programs, thereby dismissing their case against Hawaiian homesteaders.^[40] The court ruled that limiting OHA elections solely to Hawaiian voters based on race was unconstitutional.^[40]

American Civil Liberties Union Hawaii lawsuit

In 2012, Mollway granted Hawaii prisoners the right to marry, ruling in favor of the American Civil Liberties Union. She ordered that the state could not interfere with the fundamental right to marriage.^[41]

County of Maui v Hawaii Wildlife Fund

In 2014, Mollway ruled in favor of environmental groups when they sued the County of Maui for discharging groundwater pollution without a permit. The Supreme Court addressed the decision in County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund.^[42][43]

Conservation Council for Hawaii lawsuit

In 2015, Mollway again ruled in favor of environmentalists who accused the Navy of threatening marine mammals due to their use of sonar and explosives during training off Southern California and Hawaii. Mollway ruled that the National Marine Fisheries Service violated environmental laws.^[44]

Awards

Throughout her career, Mollway has received a number of awards.^[45]

In 1987, the Hawaii Women Lawyers Association, a non-profit organization incorporated in 1982, awarded her the Outstanding Woman Lawyer of the Year Award and the Outstanding Judicial Achievement Award later in 2004.^[46] The organization is committed to improving the lives and careers of women attorneys and advancing their legal professions and promoting equal opportunity.^[46]

The following year, in 1987, she was awarded the Trailblazer Award by the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association which recognizes commendable commitment, achievements, and leaderships of Asian American Pacific Islander lawyers, simultaneously paving the way for AAPI attorneys.^[47]

In 1999, the University of Georgia School of Law invited Mollway to become an Edith House Lecturer.^[48] The Edith House Law Lecture Series aims to support the Women Law Students' Association at the University of Georgia School of Law by bringing forth women pioneers who have made significant advancements in the legal profession.^[49]  Mollway discussed and analyzed her federal judicial confirmation process as a Japanese-American woman.^[50]

In 2000, the Harvard Asian American Intercollegiate Conference awarded Mollway the Heroes 2000 award.

In 2005, the Asian American Justice Center awarded her the Distinguished Service Award.

Diversity on the bench

Gender

Mollway's confirmation and experience undergoing her complicated nomination process allowed her to reveal the generalized pattern in the behavior of women judges.^[19] She observed that many women judges sought constant outside validation due to external factors of doubt regarding their career and legal capabilities.^[19] Mollway believed that, as a result, women judges were slower to recognize their value.^[19]

In a 2022 interview with Bolch Judicial Institute, Mollway urged the next generation of women judicial candidates to not be so hesitant amongst men and to, consequently, not step in their own way with constant comparisons and internalized self-denigration.^[19]

Race

Mollway believes even though nobody is totally unaffected by their background since everyone is influenced by their experiences, the model of impartiality is often a white, male jurist.^[19] She stated her theory is often reflected in the motions to recuse on the basis of gender or race in certain cases with the claim of partiality.^[19] In the Bolch Judicial Institute interview, Mollway said that she feels "the legitimacy of the judiciary is heightened when the judiciary looks like the community in which the judiciary operates."^[19]

Impact

Prior to Mollway's appointment, only eleven of the 2,840 Article III judges were Asian-American and all 11 were Asian-American men.^[51] The second Asian-American woman, Kiyo A. Matsumoto, on the federal bench came ten years after Mollway.^[51]

Since Mollway, there has been a surge in the appointment of Asian-American women in federal court. President Joe Biden appoint twelve Asian-American woman, President Donald Trump appointed five, and President Barack Obama appointed ten.^[51]

In a 2020 interview with the Ninth Judicial Circuit Historical Society, Mollway said she believed that, with the rise of Asian-American woman on the judiciary, judges play a crucial role in encouraging others to consider judgeship.^[52]

See also

• List of Asian American jurists
• List of first women lawyers and judges in Hawaii
• List of first women lawyers and judges in the United States

References

Sources

• Susan Oki Mollway at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a publication of the Federal Judicial Center.

Legal offices
Preceded by Harold Michael Fong	Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii 1998–2015	Succeeded by Jill Otake
Preceded by Helen Gillmor	Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii 2009–2015	Succeeded by John Michael Seabright