Mark Recktenwald, ’86, Reflects on Judiciary Career as Retirement Nears
Outgoing Chief Justice: ‘We Can’t Just Assume We Have The Public’s Trust’
Surveys conducted by the Pew Research Center show that public confidence in government generally is at an all-time low.
For the leader of the Hawaiʻi Judiciary, that distrust is alarming and unacceptable.
In his final State of the Judiciary speech Thursday at the State Capitol, Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Recktenwald said promoting public trust and confidence in the courts is the Judiciary’s biggest challenge.
“We can’t just assume we have the public’s trust — we need to earn it,” he told a Senate chamber packed with top officials from the three branches of state government.
Recktenwald said the courts have made significant progress in becoming more transparent. Oral arguments before the high court are now live-streamed — more than 125 times since 2020 — because the Covid-19 pandemic changed the way government operates.
The five Supreme Court justices, through the Courts in the Community Program, have held oral arguments in school gymnasiums, including Kealakehe on the Big Island, Lahainaluna on Maui and Wai‘anae and Mililani on Oʻahu.
Those remote proceedings can be viewed online. And with electronic filing now the norm for all courts, the public can more easily access court records.
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