Susan Oki Mollway (born 1950) is a federal district judge on the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii and the first Asian-American woman ever appointed to the federal bench.
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Born in Honolulu, Mollway earned a bachelor's degree in English literature from the University of Hawaii in 1971 and a master's degree in English literature from the University of Hawaii in 1973.[1] She earned a law degree from the Harvard Law School in 1981.[2]
Mollway taught English and worked at an English-language publisher in Tokyo from 1975 until 1977.[3] After law school, she worked in private legal practice in Honolulu from 1981 until 1998, when she joined the federal bench. At the end of her time in private practice, she was working as a partner for the law firm Cades, Schutte, Fleming & Wright.[4] Mollway also worked briefly as an adjunct instructor at the University of Hawaii William S. Richardson School of Law from 1988 until 1989.[5]
On January 7, 1997, President Bill Clinton nominated Mollway to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii to fill the vacancy created by the 1995 death of Judge Harold Michael Fong.[6] The United States Senate confirmed Mollway's nomination in a 56-34 vote on June 22, 1998.[7] Mollway has the unusual distinction of being the federal judge appointed by Clinton who was confirmed with the lowest number of votes by the Senate, with a total of only 90 Senators participating in the vote. (One other Clinton district court nominee, Ronnie L. White, was rejected by the Senate on October 5, 1999 in a 54-45 vote.)