Harold Michael Fong (April 28, 1938 – April 20, 1995) was an American lawyer and a

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district. Each district covers one U.S. state or a portion of a state. There is at least one feder ...

of the

United States District Court for the District of Hawaii The United States District Court for the District of Hawaii (in case citations, D. Haw.) is the principal trial court of the United States Federal Court System in the state of Hawaii. The court's territorial jurisdiction encompasses the st ...

Education and career

Fong was born on April 28, 1938, in

Honolulu Honolulu ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, located in the Pacific Ocean. It is the county seat of the Consolidated city-county, consolidated City and County of Honol ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

, to a Chinese Hawaiian family. He attended the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

where he received an Artium Baccalaureus degree in 1960. He later went to the

University of Michigan Law School The University of Michigan Law School (branded as Michigan Law) is the law school of the University of Michigan, a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Founded in 1859, the school offers Master of Laws (LLM), Master of Comparati ...

where he got a

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

in 1964. He was named the deputy prosecuting attorney for Honolulu the next year, serving until 1968, when he went into private practice. In 1969, Fong became an assistant federal prosecutor in the District of Hawaii. He was appointed

United States Attorney United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal ...

in 1973 and served the same district until 1978, after which he returned to private practice until 1982.

Federal judicial service

Fong was nominated by President

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...

on February 11, 1982, to a seat vacated by Judge

Walter Heen Walter Meheula Heen (born April 17, 1928) is an American lawyer, politician and judge. He briefly served as a United States federal judge, United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii and trustee of ...

on the

. He was confirmed by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

on June 18, 1982, and received his commission on June 21, 1982. He served as Chief Judge from 1984 to 1991. Fong died on April 20, 1995, in Honolulu, from complications of heart surgery.

Notable cases

Judge Fong authored the judicial opinion in ''Anbe v. Kikuchi'' that determined federal rules for international service of legal process under the

Hague Service Convention The Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters, more commonly called the Hague Service Convention, is a multilateral treaty that was adopted in The Hague, the Netherlands, on 15 Novem ...

. Fong also presided over a case involving Hawaii's ban on write-in votes and a case involving the assets of

Ferdinand Marcos Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. (September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was a Filipino lawyer, politician, dictator, and Kleptocracy, kleptocrat who served as the tenth president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He ruled the c ...

and

Imelda Marcos Imelda Romualdez Marcos (; born Imelda Remedios Visitación Trinidad Romuáldez; July 2, 1929) is a Filipino politician who was First Lady of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986, wielding significant political power after her husband Ferdinand ...

of the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fong, Harold 1938 births 1995 deaths University of Michigan Law School alumni University of Southern California alumni Judges of the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii United States district court judges appointed by Ronald Reagan 20th-century American lawyers United States attorneys for the District of Hawaii Assistant United States attorneys Hawaii people of Chinese descent

Education and career

Federal judicial service

Notable cases

See also

References

Sources