One of my high school classmates thanked me for posting recent, important decisions on my blog as it kept him in the loop on important decisions that could impact his life. So, that got me thinking:
To the normal (non-lawyer!) resident of Hawaii, what are the top ten most important decisions of the U.S. and Hawaii Supreme Courts and why. I circulated the question at my firm and have come up with my own list based on the thoughts of my partners. I measure importance based on the long term impacts and not on the merits of the decision (as I include some infamous decisions). The following are my thoughts and I'll admit that this is pretty subjective. (Only have links to the Supreme Court cases, tough to get the pre-internet, original opinions of the Hawaii cases without a trip to Aliiolani Hale):
Marbury v. Madison: This is the case that set out the Supreme Court's position as the ultimate decision-maker regarding the constitutionality of federal laws.
Baehr v. Lewin
McBryde Sugar Co. v. Robinson
Public Access Shoreline Hawaii v. Hawaii County Planning Commission
Slaughterhouse Cases (and now McDonald v. Chicago)
United States v. Carolene Products, Co.