Joseph Frank McLaughlin

J. Frank McLaughlin
Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii
In office September 5, 1951 – March 17, 1959
Preceded by	Delbert E. Metzger
Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii
In office 1943 – March 17, 1959
Appointed by	President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Preceded by	Ingram M. Stainback
Personal details
Born	Joseph Francis McLaughlin (1908-06-07)June 7, 1908 Leominster, Worcester County, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	October 24, 1962 Honolulu
Education	Dartmouth College, 1930 (BA) Harvard University School of Law, 1933 (JD)

J. Frank (Joseph Francis) McLaughlin (June 7, 1908 - October 25, 1962) was a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii in the Territory of Hawaii.

Early life and education

Born in Leominster, Massachusetts, J. Frank McLaughlin graduated from Saint John's High School, in 1926. He received a Bachelor of Arts from Dartmouth College in 1930, followed by a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1933.

Career

After graduating from a Harvard Law School, McLaughlin was in private practice in Whitinsville, Massachusetts from 1933 to 1935. He worked for a year in the United States Justice Department in Washington, D.C. and arrived in the Territory of Hawaii in 1936.

Federal judicial service

In 1942, McLaughlin was nominated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii vacated by Judge Ingram M. Stainback. He was confirmed by the United States Senate in 1943.

Notable cases

Ex Parte White, 66 F. Supp. 982 (D. Haw. 1944)

Ex Parte Spurlock, 66 F. Supp. 997 (D. Haw. 1944)

Kotohira Jinsha v. McGrath, 90 F. Supp. 892 (D. Haw. 1950)

On June 1, 1948, U.S. Government officials raided and seized the Kotohira Jinsha Shrine under the Trading with the Enemy Act, and announced its sale the following year. Representatives for Kotohira Jinsha filed a lawsuit contending that the shrine had been wrongfully seized.

Senator J. Howard McGrath of Rhode Island was the Attorney General of the United States appointed by President Harry Truman in 1949. The lawsuit against the Attorney General's office became Kotohira Jinsha vs. McGrath. 

The trial was held on May 17, 1950. Recent Harvard Law School graduate (Class of 1948) and future Hawaii Supreme Court Justice, Frank D. Padgett, argued his first case on behalf of the shrine.

The following day, Judge McLaughlin, citing the First Amendment, ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, Kotohira Jinsha. McLaughlin ordered that their property be returned to them, and rebuked the actions of Attorney General McGrath and the Federal Government.

In his opinion Judge McLaughlin stated, "The undisguised fact is that this plaintiff's property was vested taken away because what plaintiff believes in was disliked or suspected, and by taking away its base of operations, its fervor for its beliefs would tend to diminish and eventually vanish. Not until the evidence was concluded was I willing to even listen to argument on this point, for I could not believe it. I still do not believe the Attorney General really acted on such a basis even though such evidence as the Court was given might so indicate."

"We have not yet come to the point nor will we ever while "this Court [also] sits" where the Government can take away a person's property because it does not approve of what that person believes in or teaches by way of religion or philosophy of life. The First Amendment forbids."

Dyer v. Kazuhisa Abe, 138 F. Supp. 220 (D. Haw. 1956)

In Dyer v. Kazuhisa Abe, Judge McLaughlin ruled that in certain circumstances the courts should remedy legislative districting issues when the legislature doesn't do this itself. If the rights of the people are hindered or obstructed (actively or inactively) by the legislative body of elected representatives then the only available recourse for the individual is with the courts.

There were several defendants in elected office in the territory that were named in this case, including Daniel K. Inouye, the future U.S. Senator.

The issue arose because of the population shift from other Hawaiian islands to Oahu over the years, resulting in a legislative imbalance that favored rural areas over urban areas.

The Hawaiian Organic Act required periodic legislative reapportionment based on the population of a given area. Judge McLaughlin's ruling addressed the territorial situation under the act, which was brought to the federal court by an Oahu voter. He ruled in Dyer's favor and ordered elections to be held.

This ruling was later overturned by the ninth circuit court of appeals in San Fransisco, resulting in the new elections being called off.  

In 1962, in Baker v. Carr, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled similarly to Judge McLaughlin. In Justice Douglas's concurring opinion, he quoted Judge McLaughlin and Dyer v. Kazuhisha Abe.                                                                  

From Baker v. Carr

MR. JUSTICE DOUGLAS, concurring.

As stated by Judge McLaughlin in Dyer v. Kazuhisa Abe, 138 F. Supp. 220, 236 (an apportionment case in Hawaii which was reversed and dismissed as moot, 256 F.2d 728):

"The whole thrust of today's legal climate is to end unconstitutional discrimination. It is ludicrous to preclude judicial relief when a mainspring of representative government is impaired. Legislators have no immunity from the Constitution. The legislatures of our land should be made as responsive to the Constitution of the United States as are the citizens who elect the legislators."

In 1964, the Supreme Court ruled additionally on the apportionment issue in Reynolds v. Sims.