STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2933

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2319

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 2319 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT PROPOSING AN AMENDMENT TO ARTICLE VI, SECTION 3, OF THE HAWAII STATE CONSTITUTION TO INCREASE THE MANDATORY RETIREMENT AGE FOR STATE JUSTICES AND JUDGES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to propose a constitutional amendment to increase the mandatory retirement age for state justices and judges from seventy to seventy-five years of age.

Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the Judiciary, Community Alliance on Prisons, and one individual.

Your Committee received written comments in opposition to this measure from two individuals.

Your Committee finds that state justices and judges are able to perform their judicial duties past the age of seventy. Your Committee further finds that many of the justices and judges who were forced to retire at age seventy continue to be active in the legal community and other community-based endeavors.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2319 and recommends that it pass Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

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DONOVAN M. DELA CRUZ, Chair