[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 149 (Thursday, September 15, 2022)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E938-E940]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
NEW FEDERAL COURT OPENS IN THE MARIANAS
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HON. GREGORIO KILILI CAMACHO SABLAN
of the northern mariana islands
in the house of representatives
Thursday, September 15, 2022
Mr. SABLAN. Madam Speaker, on September 16, the United States
District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands will be officially
moved into its new courtroom and offices in Gualo Rai on the island of
Saipan. The U.S. Pretrial and Probation Office, the U.S. Marshals
Service, the U.S. Attorney's Office, and the Federal Protective Service
are also now housed in this new building, leased by the General
Services Administration from Marianas Management Corporation for the
next twenty years.
To commemorate this move I want to add to the Congressional Record a
history of the federal court in the Marianas, which is part of the
ongoing story of how the people I represent have become members of the
American political family and have been included in the institutions of
the United States government.
I am indebted to the research of Ms. Lallane Guiao-Seng, MPA, who
formerly interned with the Marianas congressional office and is now
Generalist Clerk for the U.S. District Court. Ms. Guiao-Seng prepared a
photo exhibition
[[Page E939]]
with extensive captioning recounting the court's history for the
ceremonial opening of the new courthouse this month. I am also indebted
to Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona, who agreed to allow Ms. Guiao-Seng
to share her research with the congressional office. That work is
extensively excerpted here.
Section 401 of the Covenant to Establish a Commonwealth of the
Northern Mariana Islands in Political Union with the United States of
America, which the people of the Mariana approved in a plebiscite in
1975 and Congress agreed in Public Law 94-241 in 1976, provides that
the United States will establish a District Court for the Northern
Mariana Islands. The United States fulfilled this commitment in 1977
with enactment of Public Law 95-157 establishing the District Court
under Article IV of the U.S. Constitution.
According to the Senate Judiciary Committee report that accompanied
this legislation, establishment of the court was a legislative priority
during the 95th Congress (1977-78). The Committee noted, in part, that
After the Constitution [of the Northern Mariana Islands]
becomes effective, it will take the legislature an
undetermined amount of time to create the local court
authorized by the Constitution and to establish it as a
functioning branch of the local government. Transitional
provisions of the constitution will enable the current, local
courts to hear and determine cases that will be within the
limited jurisdiction of the Commonwealth trial court.
However, unless the District Court for the Northern Mariana
Islands is established by S. 2149 in this session of
Congress, there will be no court in the Northern Mariana
Islands to hear serious criminal and important civil cases,
arising under local law. Moreover, there would be no court to
hear cases involving Federal questions or Federal crimes, and
there would be no appellate tribunal.
Consequently, the committee recognized ``the urgent need for
enactment of S. 2149 in this session of the Congress and, therefore,
the committee reports the bill favorably with a recommendation that it
do pass.'' The legislation did pass the Senate on October 13, 1977, and
the House on October 25. President Carter signed the bill on November 8
of that year.
In addition to establishing a judgeship for the court and assigning
it to the same judicial circuit as Guam (which, at present, is the
Ninth Circuit), the legislation also authorized the President to
appoint a U.S. attorney and a marshal for the Northern Mariana Islands.
The legislation also granted the court the same jurisdiction as a U.S.
district court (i.e., district courts authorized under Article III of
the Constitution). The Chief Judge of the Ninth Judicial Circuit was
empowered to assign certain persons ``to serve temporarily as a judge
in the District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands whenever such an
assignment is necessary for the proper dispatch of the business of the
court.''
Quickly, the Chief Judge of the Ninth Judicial Circuit did assign
three senior federal judges and the new Northern Mariana Islands
District Court received its first case filings on January 9, 1978.
Quickly, too, President Jimmy Carter nominated Alfred Laureta, who
hailed from Hawaii, to be the district judge. He was confirmed by the
Senate on May 17, 1978.
The new courthouse and federal office building we are celebrating
today is a far cry from quarters that Judge Laureta confronted, when he
arrived on the island of Saipan in the Marianas in August of 1978.
``The Court convened in a poolside suite at the Saipan Beach
Intercontinental Inn in the village of Garapan. The district judge's
law clerk's office was ten yards from the Intercontinental swimming
pool and thirty yards from the beach. The courtroom itself was set up
at the end of the banquet room, which could be closed off from the rest
of the room and then opened for jury trials,'' according to the
research of Ms. Guiao-Seng.
Mr. Howard K.K. Luke, Judge Laureta's law clerk, recalled this scene
when he and the judge first arrived:
Saipan had just had the heaviest rainfall in recent
recorded history. The first thing we saw upon arriving at the
Saipan Intercontinental Inn was a car that was mostly
underwater. The District Court was in a small room that had
been hastily repaired, as it was heavily damaged from a fire
from the kitchen area next to it not long before our arrival.
We found a metal desk that served as the federal bench for
the next several months.
Despite these less than imposing circumstances, the court got to
work. And for the next eight years, the District Court heard both
federal cases and the most serious local cases, including criminal
cases with penalties of five years imprisonment or more and civil cases
dealing with amounts in controversy of over $5,000. All jury trials
also fell under the jurisdiction of the District Court.
As Ms. Guaio-Seng recounts, the Federal District Court also served as
the appellate court for the Commonwealth Trial Court. ``Cases appealed
from [the Trial Court] were heard by a panel of three judges on the
`Appellate Division' of the District Court. The panel included the U.S.
district judge for the NMI, a judge of the Commonwealth Trial Court,
and another federal district judge assigned by the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The opinions rendered by this appellate
arm of the District Court for the [Northern Mariana Islands] were
appealable to the Ninth Circuit.''
The federal government also had begun negotiations for a more
appropriate setting in which the District Court could convene. In 1981,
after three makeshift years at the hotel, space was rented at the newly
opened Nauru Building, a seven-story commercial venture of the Republic
of Nauru, to accommodate the needs of the federal court, including a
small courtroom, library, judge's chambers, and staff offices.
Judge Laureta's 10-year term ended in 1988 at which time President
Ronald Reagan nominated Alex R. Munson to be District Court judge for
the Northern Mariana Islands. Judge Munson was familiar with the region
having served as the Chief Judge for the High Court of the Trust
Territory of the Pacific Islands, which encompassed the Marianas as
well as Palau, Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei, Kosrae, and the Marshall Islands.
Munson also initiated a relocation of the court to more spacious
accommodations in the Horiguchi Building. The courtroom was located on
the ground floor, the Clerk's Office and Judge's Chambers on the second
floor, and a grand jury room on the third floor.
Within ten years, however, this space, too, proved inadequate. ``In
the wake of the 1998 Oklahoma City federal courthouse bombing, a
Federal Assessment Board determined that the courtroom in the Horiguchi
Building was the least safe courthouse in the nation,'' Ms. Guaio-Seng
reports. As a result, the General Services Administration decided to
build a new federal building in Saipan, but Congress balked at the
cost.
Not until 2010, when a drunk driver veered off the road and crashed a
16-passenger van into the Horiguchi Building courtroom, did the federal
government agree that a more secure facility was required. Yet seven
more years passed before the General Services Administration finally
contracted with the Marianas Management Corporation on a construct/
lease arrangement for a new federal court building. Construction
dragged out in the aftermath of Super Typhoon Yutu in 2018 and during
the COVID-19 pandemic; but in early 2020 the District Court began its
move to the new courthouse. The first judicial proceeding there took
place on July 14, 2020. And this week we celebrate the official grand
opening.
Throughout the last four decades, the U.S. District Court for the
Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. judicial system have played a
pivotal role in the life of our community. The case of Commonwealth v.
Atalig established the right to a jury trial for defendants facing a
substantial period of incarceration. Wabol v. Villacrusis let stand the
land alienation restrictions in the Commonwealth Constitution. And the
court presided over the conviction of a Lt. Governor on charges of
corruption.
The court is also the venue for the swearing in of new U.S. citizens,
a regular and inspirational event I have many times attended.
The federal court is a focal point of local pride, too. Though the
first two judges were off-islanders, in 2011 President Barack Obama
nominated Ramona V. Manglona, a person of Northern Marianas descent, to
the bench; and the U.S. Senate confirmed her that year. It is my
sincere hope that President Biden will acknowledge the exceptional work
of Chief Judge Manglona and nominate her for a second, 10-year term.
In the meantime, I join Judge Manglona, her staff, and the members of
the U.S. Pretrial and Probation Office, the U.S. Marshals Service, the
U.S. Attorney's Office, and the Federal Protective Service in
celebrating their new workspace.
As so many Americans individually did and our governmental and civil
institutions, as well, the U.S. District Court made substantial
adjustments in practice to continue functioning during the pandemic.
In-person proceedings were discontinued, trials and grand jury sessions
were held remotely. Eventually, however, and with the cautions we have
become accustomed to--N95 masks and other personal protective
equipment--the court was able to hold an in-person jury trial last
year, In part, the 35,696 square-feet of space provided by the new
Gualo Rai courthouse made the necessary social distancing feasible. The
design is also forward-looking in its incorporation of innovative
lighting and landscaping; and energy efficient fixtures and wastewater
technologies are projected to realize future cost savings and conserve
resources.
So, the grand opening celebration this week is more than just a
ribbon cutting. It has the feel of a return to normalcy. It is a new
normal, however, enhanced by a fine new facility ready to serve the
cause of justice in the Northern Mariana Islands.
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