Acting Chief Justice Sabrina S. McKenna has picked three new faces for Hawaii’s busy District Courts, adding a fresh mix of public defense, nonprofit and government experience to the bench.
On Monday, McKenna appointed Andrew Michael Kennedy to the District Court of the Third Circuit on Hawaiʻi Island, and Kirsha Kaulukane Milianani Durante and Simeona Lynn Liliuokalani Ahuna Mariano to the District Court of the First Circuit on Oʻahu. The choices came from nomination lists the Judicial Selection Commission released on February 11, 2026, and each appointment still needs confirmation by the Hawaiʻi Senate. If confirmed, all three would serve six-year terms.
Who the appointees are
Andrew M. Kennedy has been a partner at the Kailua-Kona firm Schlueter, Kwiat & Kennedy since 2018 and previously worked as a deputy public defender in Kona, with earlier litigation stints in New York and New Hampshire, according to Schlueter, Kwiat & Kennedy. A resume filed with lawmakers notes that he earned his law degree from Suffolk University in 2002, joined the Hawaiʻi bar in 2012, and has served on the federal Criminal Justice Act panel and in leadership roles with the West Hawaiʻi Bar Association, as detailed by the Hawaii State Legislature.
Durante's track record
Kirsha Kaulukane Milianani Durante currently serves as Litigation Director at the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation, where she leads NHLC’s ʻOhana and Lāhui teams after joining the organization in 2021. Her biography notes sixteen years as a senior trial attorney at the Office of the Public Defender, a clerkship with First Circuit Judge Marcia Waldorf, a William S. Richardson School of Law degree and admission to the Hawaiʻi bar in 2004, according to the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation.
Mariano's family-law experience
Simeona Lynn Liliuokalani Ahuna Mariano has served as a Deputy Attorney General since 2007 in the Family Law Division, handling child-welfare matters, juvenile cases, guardianships and involuntary hospitalization hearings. Before that, she prosecuted felony and welfare-fraud cases on Kauaʻi. The appointment announcement also points to Mariano’s work with the Hawaiʻi State Bar Association and access-to-justice efforts, according to KPUA.
What happens next
The Judicial Selection Commission posted its nominee lists on February 11, 2026 and noted that the acting chief justice had 30 days to make choices. Any appointment must then be reviewed and confirmed by the Hawaiʻi Senate before a judge can take office for a six-year term, according to the Hawaii State Judiciary for the First Circuit list and the Hawaii State Judiciary for the Third Circuit list.
Why it matters
The new picks land as the Judiciary works to fill vacancies and build out court programs following recent legislative victories. Court officials have warned that a shrinking pool of applicants, especially on neighbor islands, can slow case processing and add pressure to already stretched local courts. Reporting by Honolulu Civil Beat has documented those recruitment and funding challenges in recent months, underscoring why every district court seat has outsized impact on how quickly justice actually gets done.
