SB 175 Hawaii Senate · 2026 Regular Session

PROPOSING AN AMENDMENT TO ARTICLE VI, SECTION 3, OF THE HAWAII STATE CONSTITUTION TO INCREASE THE MANDATORY RETIREMENT AGE FOR STATE JUSTICES AND JUDGES.

SB 175 proposes amending Hawaii's state constitution to raise the mandatory retirement age for state justices and judges from 70 to 75 years. This change would directly affect current and future state judges, allowing them to serve longer in their roles. The bill seeks to modify Article VI, Section 3 of the Hawaii State Constitution to implement this age increase. It is currently pending in committee after passing its first reading and committee recommendation with amendments.

Bill status passed 3 of 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2025

Committee Review

Feb 2025

Senate Passage

Feb 2025

House Passage

Governor

Introduced Jan 13, 2025 Last action Dec 8, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

SB175 → SB175_SD1 · 3 edits

MINOR

The bill was converted from a House bill (HB) to a Senate Draft 1 version, updating internal tracking numbers and dates. The substantive policy text remains unchanged, proposing to raise the mandatory retirement age for state justices and judges from 70 to 75 years.

Scope change

No change to the bill's scope or applicability; the proposed amendment to the state constitution remains the same.

TECHNICAL

Updated bill title and metadata to reflect Senate Draft 1 status, including new revision numbers and dates.

Removed House-specific metadata and introductory fields such as 'Introduced by' and the HB template identifier.

Adjusted the formatting of the proposed amendment text to include a specific citation marker (SD1) at the end of the summary sentence.

Floor votes

How they voted

This bill passed the Senate by voice vote (no roll call recorded).

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Feb 6, 2025

Upper · Passed

Report adopted; Passed Second Reading, as amended (SD 1) and referred to WAM.

upper

Feb 6, 2025

Committee

Reported from JDC (Stand. Com. Rep. No. 64) with recommendation of passage on Second Reading, as amended (SD 1) and referral to WAM.

upper

Jan 28, 2025

Upper · Passed

The committee(s) on JDC recommend(s) that the measure be PASSED, WITH AMENDMENTS. The votes in JDC were as follows: 4 Aye(s): Senator(s) Rhoads, Gabbard, Chang, San Buenaventura; Aye(s) with reservations: none ; 1 No(es): Senator(s) Awa; and 0 Excused: none.

upper

Jan 22, 2025

Upper · Passed

The committee(s) on JDC has scheduled a public hearing on 01-28-25 9:15AM; Conference Room 016 & Videoconference.

upper

Jan 17, 2025

Committee

Referred to JDC, WAM.

upper

Jan 15, 2025

Introduced

Introduced and passed First Reading.

upper

Jan 13, 2025

Introduced

Pending Introduction.

upper

4 primary · 0 co-sponsors