Frank D. Padgett

Frank D. Padgett
Frank D. Padgett
	Hawaiʻi Supreme Court
	In office; 1982–1992
Preceded by	Benjamin Menor
Succeeded by	Steven Levinson
Personal details
Born	March 9, 1923; Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.
Citizenship	United States
Spouse	Sibyl Padgett
Alma mater	Harvard College
Nickname	Bobcat
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch/service	Army Air Force
Unit	308th Heavy Bombardment Group
Battles/wars	World War II; South-East Asian theatre of World War II

Frank David Padgett (March 9, 1923 – July 11, 2021) was an American judge and

B-24

bomber pilot. Padgett grew up during the Great Depression and earned a scholarship to Harvard College in Massachusetts. Before he could graduate however, he was called to active duty in the U.S. Army Air Force and for the next 13 months, trained as a pilot.

Biography

In 1944, Padgett and a crew of ten flew their

Saigon

Kempetai prison where he spent the next eight months. On the train journey south, he was reunited with two others from his crew who had been captured then dragged through the countryside in chains. The three men spent the rest of the war in the Saigon prison, starving and wracked with tropical illnesses.

After the war, Padgett spent many months in military hospitals recovering from

amoebic dysentery, which he had contracted while a prisoner. He went back to school and earned his law degree from Harvard College in 1948. He and his family moved to Honolulu, Hawaii

in 1948, where Padgett was offered a job with the law firm Robertson, Castle and Anthony.

His first case was representing a Shinto shrine in Kalihi Valley on the island of Oahu. The case involved the seizure of the Kotohira Jinsha temple by the federal government's Alien Property Custodian in June 1948 and the subsequent attempt to sell the property in 1949, on the grounds that the Shinto religion was enemy-tainted and associated with emperor worship.

When the case went to trial in 1950, federal judge J. Frank McLaughlin ruled against the government and the land was released back to the members of the Kotohira Jinsha community. In his ruling, Judge McLaughlin found the Attorney General's office in violation of the First Amendment rights of plaintiffs with reference to Robert H. Jackson in "American Communications Association v. Douds". McLaughlin found the Attorney General's office had no evidence to use the Trading with the Enemy Act, moreover, since 1945 Japan had abolished state religion under Douglas MacArthur and by judicial order returned seized property to Kotohira Jinsha.^[1]

Padgett went on to practice law in Honolulu for the next thirty years before being appointed to the Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals in 1980. In 1982, he was appointed, by then governor

Hawaii Supreme Court as an associate justice. He served on the court for ten years until his retirement in 1992. He lived in Honolulu with his wife Sibyl. Padgett died there on July 11, 2021, at the age of 98.^[2]

References

^ Kotohira Jinsha v. McGrath, 90 F. Supp. 892 - Dist. Court, D. Hawaii 1950 (1950)
^ "Hawaii State Judiciary News Release: Statement from Chief Justice Mark E. Recktenwald on the passing of former Hawaii Supreme Court Associate Justice Frank D. Padgett" (Press release). Honolulu, Hawaii. August 2, 2021. Retrieved August 3, 2021.

[1] Kotohira Jinsha v. McGrath, 90 F. Supp. 892 - Dist. Court, D. Hawaii 1950 (1950)

[2] "Hawaii State Judiciary News Release: Statement from Chief Justice Mark E. Recktenwald on the passing of former Hawaii Supreme Court Associate Justice Frank D. Padgett" (Press release). Honolulu, Hawaii. August 2, 2021. Retrieved August 3, 2021.

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