Delbert Metzger
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Categories: Stubs | Hawaii stub | Hawaii Democrats
Delbert Metzger (b. 1875, Kansas - d. 1967).
In a Honolulu Advertiser article dated July 2, 2006, Mike Gordon wrote of Judge Metzger:
- He came to Hawai'i in 1899 as an engineer and helped map the lochs at Pearl Harbor and later dug artesian wells on O'ahu, Kaua'i, Ni'ihau and the Big Island.
- A lifelong liberal Democrat, Metzger helped organize the party on Kaua'i. His service to the party, which lasted for 60 years, would be rewarded in 1960 when he was named to the Electoral College so he could cast the state's three votes for John F. Kennedy.
- Metzger's wartime beef was with Lt. Gen. Robert C. Richardson Jr., commanding general in Hawai'i at a time when martial law had replaced all civilian authority. Metzger felt that military rule was arbitrary and unfair. When he found Richardson in contempt, Metzger fined the general $5,000.
- The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately upheld Metzger's opinions on military rule, declaring that the military had illegally closed the civil courts and imposed unnecessary orders on the territorial government.
- In a different case, Metzger ruled that Navy enlisted people did not lose their constitutional rights simply because they were in the Navy.
- The judge also angered many when he reduced the bail of seven Hawai'i residents — including labor leader Jack Hall of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union — from $75,000 to $5,000 after they were charged with conspiring to teach the overthrow of the government. [1]
External links
- Burlingame, Burl. Hawaii was the ‘Florida’ of 1960 election -- New state's electoral votes went to Nixon first, and then to Kennedy Honolulu Star-Bulletin, November 18, 2000.
- Taking Liberties Legal Affairs, May/June 2003.
- Gordon, Mike. Delbert Metzger Honolulu Advertiser, July 2, 2006.
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