Archives and Political Processes: H-3 Construction

U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaiʻi

Federal district courts are the civil and criminal trial courts of the federal court system. There is one district court in each state. District Court judges are appointed to the court by the president and confirmed by the US Senate. Judges are supposed to be nonpartisan, but presidents usually appoint judges who are affiliated with the president’s political party.

US District Judge Samuel P. King presided over most of the federal cases involving H-3. He issued a number of significant rulings, which are described in the Judicial Process page. King was the son of Samuel Wilder King, who served as Hawaiʻi’s delegate in Congress before President Eisenhower appointed him governor of the Territory of Hawaiʻi. President Richard M. Nixon appointed Samuel P. King to be the US District Judge in 1972. Although two judgeships had been authorized for Hawaiʻi, the second judge, Dick Wong, died in 1978 and King was the sole judge until President Ronald Reagan appointed Harold Fong to the bench in 1982. King continued to serve as a US district judge until his death in 2010.