New Federal Court Opens in the Marianas

Floor Speech

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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 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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