Vladimir Devens, an associate justice on the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court, received consent from the Senate Judiciary Committee Friday to be the next chief justice.
But two of the five senators, including the committee chair, voted against Gov. Josh Green’s nominee.
Rhoads told the largely pro-Devens audience representing the labor and legal circles that it was “a sad day” for him, as he had voted to approve 69 previous judicial selections. The Devens’ nomination was his 70th and first to oppose.
“This is the first time where I felt like I wasn’t getting all the information needed to make my decision from the paperwork or the nominee themselves,” he said. “Too many important facts came to my attention through the press. For these reasons, for those reasons, I reluctantly recommend that we not consent to the nomination.”
Rhoads was referring to Civil Beat stories that reported Devens had not disclosed his membership on the board of Be Change Now, a super PAC operated by Pacific Resource Partnership.
PRP is a consortium made up of the 6,000-member Hawaiʻi carpenters union and more than 250 contractors statewide who employ them. It’s funded by the Hawaiʻi Carpenters Market Recovery Program Fund, and it is actively involved in local political campaigns.
Hawai’i chief justice nominee Vladimir Devens with Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney Steve Alm during a break in his confirmation hearing at the State Capitol Wednesday. On Friday the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 3-2 to confirm Devens. The confirmation now goes tot he full Senate for a vote. (Craig Fujii/Civil Beat/2026)
Sen. Joy San Buenaventura was also troubled by Devens failure to disclose his political ties and voted against him.
“He is already a justice. I love the fact that he is a labor attorney. That’s the reason why we confirmed him the first time as a regular justice,” she said. “But this time, he is going to be chief justice in charge of the third branch of our government, and with that kind of potentially undue influence when, he as a regular citizen chose to be part of a PAC with such a negative character — not as an attorney, he did freely, he wasn’t paid — I just can’t excuse that.”
But Sens. Stanley Chang, Mike Gabbard and Brenton Awa voted in favor of Devens.
“Rather than speculating about hypotheticals, I wanted to look at his record, and he has one now that he’s been on the court for two years,” said Chang. “Not one piece of testimony suggested that the opinions and decisions that he rendered in his service on the court were not independent or impartial. Indeed, quite the opposite.”
Chang noted in particular Devens’ past work with State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers.
“He’s affirmatively demonstrated his independence and impartiality from his major client in private practice,” said Chang.
The senator recommended that the Judicial Selection Commission application be amended to ask future applicants about their political history.
Devens declined to speak to reporters after the vote. But Mark Recktenwald, the previous chief justice who retired recently, said he expected Devens would “do the right thing” as chief justice.
“I think everybody has to look at the record that they see and try to make a decision of what’s important to them,” said Recktenwald. “To me, I’m looking at the record of accomplishment of him over 30 years, and especially the two years that I worked with him, and I know him to be a person of integrity.”
He continued: “I watched his decision making during those two years. I always thought that he called it like it was straight-shooter. He ruled against law enforcement sometimes … and on environmental issues he ruled in favor of the environment — and yes, sometimes on the other side. And what I saw was somebody who’s just trying to get it right. And so I have confidence he’ll have the highest integrity.”
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