High Court of American Samoa

High Court of American Samoa
The High Court of American Samoa courthouse
Established	1921 (104 years ago)
Jurisdiction	American Samoa
Location	Fagatogo, American Samoa
Composition method	Appointed by the United States Secretary of the Interior
Authorized by	Constitution of American Samoa
Appeals to	United States Secretary of the Interior (no appeals in practice) [1]
Number of positions	2
Chief Justice
Currently	Michael Kruse
Since	1988

The High Court of American Samoa is a Samoan court and the highest court below the United States Supreme Court in American Samoa. The Court is located in the capital of Fagatogo. It consists of one chief justice and one associate justice, appointed by the United States Secretary of the Interior, holding office during "good behavior" and removable for cause. ^[2] As American Samoa has no local federal district court or territorial court, the High Court has also been granted the powers of a federal district court in certain matters while other federal matters are handled by the United States District Court for the District of Columbia and the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii. ^[3]

The High Court of American Samoa also has several Samoan associate judges who sit with the two justices. Normally, two associate judges will sit with the chief justice and associate justice on every case.

The Secretary of the Interior retains ultimate authority over the courts. ^[4]

The colonial-style Maugaolii High Court served as the U.S. Navy headquarters during World War II. ^[5]

Organization

The High Court consists of four divisions: ^[2]

• the trial division;
• the probate division;
• the land and titles division; and
• the appellate division.

The trial division, which consists of the Chief Justice, the Associate Justice, and associate judges, is a court of general jurisdiction, empowered to hear, among other things, felony cases and civil cases in which the amount in controversy exceeds $5,000.

Justices

Current justices

Name	Start	Appointer	Law School
Michael Kruse , Chief Justice	November 1, 1988 [a]	Donald P. Hodel (R)	VUW GWU (LLM)
Fiti A. Sunia	January 4, 2019	David Bernhardt (R)	Howard

1. Kruse was originally appointed as associate justice by Sec. Hodel on March 1, 1987 before being elevated to chief justice.

Historical members

The past and present justices of the court: ^[6]

Name	Associate Start	Associate End	Chief Start	Chief End	Appointer
Harry P. Wood	—	—	1921	1937	Albert B. Fall (under Harding)
Arthur A. Morrow	—	—	1937	1943	Harold L. Ickes (under F. Roosevelt)
			1945	1966
V. G. Roel	1963	1966	—	—	Stewart Udall (under Kennedy)
Joseph W. Goss	1966	1970	—	—	Stewart Udall (under Johnson)
H. Edward Hydon	—	—	1966	1968	Stewart Udall (under Johnson)
Donald Hawk Crothers	—	—	1968	1972	Wally Hickel (under Nixon)
Leslie N. Jochimsen	1971	1975	1975	1976	Rogers Morton (under Nixon)
William J. McKnight III	—	—	1972	1975	Rogers Morton (under Nixon)
K. William O'Connor	1976	1977	1977	1978	Thomas S. Kleppe (under Ford)
Richard I. Miyamoto	1976	1978	1978	1981	Thomas S. Kleppe (under Ford) (Associate Justice) Cecil Andrus (under Carter) (Chief Justice)
Thomas W. Murphy	1980	1987	—	—	Cecil Andrus (under Carter)
Robert Gardner	—	—	1981	1986	James G. Watt (under Reagan)
Grover J. Rees III	1988	1991	1986	1988	William P. Clark Jr. (under Reagan) (Chief Justice) Donald P. Hodel (under Reagan) (Associate Justice)
Michael Kruse	1987	1988	1988	present	Donald P. Hodel (under Reagan)
Lyle L. Richmond	1991	2017	—	—	Manuel Lujan Jr. (under G.H.W. Bush)
Fiti A. Sunia	2019	present	—	—	David Bernhardt (under Trump)

See also

• Judiciary of American Samoa
• Article I and Article III tribunals#Article IV tribunals

References

1. https://digital.law.washington.edu/dspace-law/bitstream/handle/1773.1/552/17PacRimLPolyJ325.pdf?sequence=1, 351.
2. Tagupa 1983, p. 23.
3. "American Samoa: Issues Associated with Some Federal Court Options". Government Accountability Office . September 18, 2008.
4. Leibowitz, Arnold H (1989). Defining Status: A Comprehensive Analysis of United States Territorial Relations. p. 420. ISBN   978-0-7923-0069-4. His legal position would not only permit him to investigate and overturn decisions of the judiciary in American Samoa, but the decisions of the Executive and Legislative branches as well. … The very fact that his office exists as an ombudsman, to put it kindly, or as a benevolent dictator — to put it less generously — depreciates all Samoan government institutions and makes the Samoan Constitution adopted in 1960 a giant deceit.
5. Schermeister, Phil (2016). National Geographic Guide to National Parks of the United States. National Geographic Books. ISBN   9781426216510.
6. "Past High Court Justices". American Samoa Bar Association. March 19, 2012. Retrieved May 16, 2022.

• Tagupa, William E. H (September 1983). "Judicial Intervention in Matai Title Succession Disputes in American Samoa". Oceania . 54 (1): 23–31. doi:10.1002/j.1834-4461.1983.tb02015.x. JSTOR   40330715.

External links

• American Samoa Legal Database
• "American Samoa", Caselaw Access Project, Harvard Law School, OCLC   1078785565, Court decisions freely available to the public online, in a consistent format, digitized from the collection of the Harvard Law Library