This past week, President Biden announced his nomination of Assistant U.S. attorney Micah Smith to serve as a judge in Hawaii’s Federal District Court for the District of Hawaii. Two sitting judges, Michael Seabright and Leslie Kobayashi, will transition to senior status next year, creating openings for new appointments.

Upon taking senior status, judges may choose to handle a reduced caseload. Senior judges handle about 20 percent of the total district and appellate caseload. By taking senior status, even if maintaining a full caseload, a judge creates a vacancy on the court, to be filled by the nomination and confirmation process for Article III judges.

Senior judges receive the salary of their position at the time of taking senior status as an annuity.

Here’s the brief bio of Smith from the president’s press release. It should have noted that he is from Kauai and graduated from Kauai High School.

Micah W. J. Smith has served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Hawaii since 2018. He is currently Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division and Criminal Civil Rights Coordinator in that office. He has also been the office’s Chief of Appeals and Legal Strategy since 2022. Previously, Mr. Smith served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York from 2012 to 2018. From 2008 to 2012, he was an associate and counsel at O’Melveny & Myers L.L.P. in Washington, D.C. Mr. Smith served as a law clerk for Justice David H. Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court from 2007 to 2008 and Judge Guido Calabresi on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 2006 to 2007. Mr. Smith received his J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 2006 and his B.A., summa cum laude, from Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania in 2003.

Another thing left unsaid is is that Smith has been one of the attorneys handling the prosecution of former Honolulu business owner Michael J. Miske, Jr., and his co-defendants.

Two weeks prior to the public announcement of Smith’s nomination, another attorney filed a notice that they would be appearing in the Miske case.

William Keaupuni Akina filed a “notice of appearance on behalf of the United States” on August 17. Akina has been prosecuting cases in Hawaii since about 2018, according to a quick review of his cases listed on the federal courts’ PACER online system.

The other Assistant U.S. Attorneys who have been involved in the prosecution since the beginning are Michael Nammar and Mark A. Inciong. In addition, AUSA Ken Sorenson, chief of the U.S. Attorney’s Criminal Division, has appeared in court several times.

With the trial now scheduled to begin in just over four months, there will have to be some shuffling and reassignment of roles among the government’s team of lawyers, just as has happened with Miske’s own defense team following the removal of their lead trial counsel, Tom Otake. It seems par for the course in drawn out cases like this one, and it doesn’t appear likely to hinder the government’s ability to prosecute the case.