Co-signed letter on S. 1327, a bill that creates and extends certain temporary district court judgeships

We write concerning recent Senate passage of S. 1327, a bill that creates and extends certain temporary district court judgeships.Earlier this year, we introduced H.R. 2155, which would convert the fourth temporary judgeship for the District of Hawaii to permanent judgeship status.The fourth temporary judgeship for the District of Hawaii was created in 1990 by Public Law 101-650.Although the judges appointed to temporary judgeships have lifetime appointments, legislation creating temporary judgeships usually specifies that the first vacancy in the district cannot be filled after a certain date.In the 1990 bill, this time frame was determined to be ten years after each temporary judgeship was filled.That meant that Hawaii could not fill a temporary vacancy occurring after October 2004.Currently, the District of Hawaii has four active judges.However, if any of these judges become inactive, by taking senior status or otherwise, the district will not be able to replace that judge because of the ten-year limitation, which has long passed.This would place a great burden on not only the three remaining active judges, but also on the litigants themselves, especially civil litigants.S.