A black and white picture of David Alan Ezra as a third year law student. Ezra wears a tie and striped collared shirt.
David Alan Ezra, 1972, as a third year law student, Diamondback Yearbook,1972 | Courtesy of the Portal to Texas History

THE HONORABLE DAVID A. EZRA was born in Columbus, Ohio in 1947. Even though Ezra was born in Ohio, he and his two siblings were raised on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, first on the windward side of the island in Kailua, and then on the leeward side. [1]Video Oral History with Judge David A. Ezra, interview with Dan Williams, Video Oral History of Judge David Ezra of the District Court for the District of Hawaii, YOUTUBE (July 14, 2015), … Continue reading

Ezra attended St. Louis High School as an adolescent before beginning his undergraduate career at Chaminade College and University of Hawaii, respectively. [2] Guillermo Contreras, Hawaiian Judge coming to Alamo City, MySA (Dec. 25, 2012), https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/Hawaiian-judge-coming-to-Alamo-City-4145437.php As a young college-aged student, Ezra wanted to be a lawyer, but with no law school anywhere on the Hawaiian Islands at that time, he looked to the U.S. mainland to find a suitable university where he could complete his degree and attend law school. He eventually arrived in San Antonio, Texas where he enrolled at St. Mary’s University. As a student in San Antonio, Ezra appreciated the diversity of the city and its large military population, two traits it shared with his native Hawaii. [3]Video Oral History with Judge David A. Ezra, interview with Dan Williams, Video Oral History of Judge David Ezra of the District Court for the District of Hawaii, YOUTUBE (July 14, 2015), … Continue reading He graduated Magna Cum Laude with his B.B.A in 1969. [4] The Hon. David Ezra, St. Mary’s University School of Law, https://law.stmarytx.edu/academics/faculty/david-ezra/

Next, Ezra enrolled at St. Mary’s Law School, where he graduated first in his class in 1972. In later years, Ezra remembered his time at St. Mary’s Law School fondly and praised the law school and its philosophy. “I enjoyed it,” he recalled in a 2015 interview, “St. Mary’s is certainly not one of the more well-known law schools, but when I went there, they had a real philosophy. They were known as, ‘a lawyer’s law school,’ he explained, “They didn’t have pretensions. They weren’t like Yale trying to teach great law professors and thinkers. They were trying to educate people to be good practicing lawyers, which was precisely what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a trial lawyer.” The law school’s small size also allowed Ezra to develop close relationships with his professors such as Law Dean Ernest A. Raba and Leon Jaworski. [5]Video Oral History with Judge David A. Ezra, interview with Dan Williams, Video Oral History of Judge David Ezra of the District Court for the District of Hawaii, YOUTUBE (July 14, 2015), … Continue reading

Before finishing law school, Ezra joined the military where he saw active duty at Fort Gordon, Georgia and later with the 25th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks in Oahu, Hawaii. While he was on active duty, Ezra learned from his father that he had passed the Hawaii Bar Exam, one of the more difficult bar exams in the nation. Eventually, Ezra was deferred from active duty so he could finish law school in 1972. [6]Video Oral History with Judge David A. Ezra, Interview with Dan Williams, Video Oral History of Judge David Ezra of the District Court for the District of Hawaii, YOUTUBE (July 14, 2015), … Continue reading

After law school, Ezra clerked at Hawaii’s Office of Corporate Counsel under attorney Paul Devons. His six-month clerkship with Devons gave Ezra the opportunity to learn about the legal infrastructure of his native Oahu. After clerking for Devons, Ezra worked for Hyman Greenstein, a renowned Hawaiian lawyer. “He was brilliant, but very eccentric,” Ezra said of Greenstein in a 2015 interview. From the beginning, Greenstein threw Ezra into the fire of being a trial lawyer. Ezra recalled in 2015, “I came into his office, I think it was my first or second day on the job. I wasn’t long out of the service, and he handed me a file and said, ‘The trial starts on Monday on Kauai. Good Luck!’ After that, Ezra joined the law firm of Anthony, Hoddick, Reinwald, and O’Conor, where he became a partner in 1980. [7]Video Oral History with Judge David A. Ezra, Interview with Dan Williams, Video Oral History of Judge David Ezra of the District Court for the District of Hawaii, YOUTUBE (July 14, 2015), … Continue reading

In 1981, Ezra became a senior partner in his own law firm, Ezra, O’Conor, Moon, and Tam. Ezra explained his decision to form his own law firm to Dan Williams in 2015, “Subsequent to that, several of us wanted to do nothing but commercial litigation. They were going in a different direction, and we wanted to do commercial litigation. I had been doing a lot of construction litigation. And so, we formed our own firm in 1980, myself, a fella named John Moon, the late Peter Wheelon, and the late Michael O’Conor.” [8]Video Oral History with Judge David A. Ezra, Interview with Dan Williams, Video Oral History of Judge David Ezra of the District Court for the District of Hawaii, YOUTUBE (July 14, 2015), … Continue reading

In 1987. Ezra was nominated by Ronald Reagan for a position on the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii. “I never thought I wanted to become a judge,” he told Brad Williams in 2015. “I was perfectly happy practicing law, and I enjoyed it very much, and we were doing very well financially, and I had a lot of very good friends.” Nevertheless, Ezra was nominated and received support from Hawaiian politicians such as U.S. senator, Daniel Inouye. After receiving bipartisan support from the U.S. Senate, Ezra received his commission in 1988, and he became the youngest federal judge in Hawaiian history. As a federal judge, Ezra presided over many important cases including Felix v. Cayetano and Rice v. Cayetano, which reshaped education and voting rights in Hawaii, respectively.[9]Video Oral History with Judge David A. Ezra, Interview with Dan Williams, Video Oral History of Judge David Ezra of the District Court for the District of Hawaii, YOUTUBE (July 14, 2015), … Continue reading

In May 1993, Hawaii’s governor, superintendent of public education, and director of health were sued in district court for not providing adequate educational and mental health support to students who required them to succeed in class. In October of 1994, Judge Ezra presided over a settlement, known as the Felix Consent Decree, which required that educational and mental health services and supports, programs and placements be developed in accordance with federal law. [10] Hawaii HB 200, HD1, SDI, CDI State Budget, Section 48, Act (2003 Legislature). https://www.hawaiipublicschools.org/Reports/LEG04FelixConsentDecree.pdf Getting the state to comply with the Felix Consent Decree was challenging. Judge Ezra recalled that, “It was quite controversial at the time. There were a lot of state legislators at the time who were not happy with the fact that I was requiring them to spend money. I had to find the state in contempt twice.” Nevertheless, Felix v. Cayetano affected the trajectory of public education in Hawaii. Judge Ezra remarked of the case, “It was a huge leap forward. It really brought Hawaii out of the dark ages in education…and it’s one of the cases I’m most proud of handling.” [11]Video Oral History with Judge David A. Ezra, Interview with Dan Williams, Video Oral History of Judge David Ezra of the District Court for the District of Hawaii, YOUTUBE (July 14, 2015), … Continue reading

Then, in 1997 Judge Ezra presided over the case Rice v. Cayetano which questioned whether laws which excluded anyone of non-Native Hawaiian ancestry from voting in elections for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) were constitutional. [12] Rice v. Cayetano, Oyez , https://www.oyez.org/cases/1999/98-818 (last visited Oct 14, 2022). Ezra explained the case, “My feeling there was that history showed [that] Native Hawaiians were, as a group, effectively should and could be treated, and Congress had treated them, the same as Native Americans. And just as Native Americans were the ones who vote in tribal elections, my view was that Native Hawaiians should have that right as well.” [13]Video Oral History with Judge David A. Ezra, Interview with Dan Williams, Video Oral History of Judge David Ezra of the District Court for the District of Hawaii, YOUTUBE (July 14, 2015), … Continue reading Rice v. Cayetano was appealed all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States where seven of nine justices disagreed with Judge Ezra’s reasoning, arguing that placing limitations on those eligible to vote for OHA candidates was a violation of the 15th amendment to the U.S. Constitution. [14] Rice v. Cayetano, Oyez , https://www.oyez.org/cases/1999/98-818 (last visited Oct 14, 2022). “I still think I was right,” Ezra confided in 2015, “the ninth circuit thought I was right, but the majority of the Supreme Court didn’t agree with the ninth circuit or me.” [15]Video Oral History with Judge David A. Ezra, Interview with Dan Williams, Video Oral History of Judge David Ezra of the District Court for the District of Hawaii, YOUTUBE (July 14, 2015), … Continue reading

In addition to serving as a federal judge, Ezra also worked as an adjunct professor at the William S. Richardson School of Law in Manoa from 1978-2012. As an adjunct professor, Ezra taught courses first on legal remedies and then on federal courts. His 34 years as an adjunct professor made Ezra not only the longest serving adjunct professor in the history of the law school, but also, one of the longest serving members of the faculty at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
Ezra enjoyed his time as an adjunct professor at the University of Hawaii. He told Brad Williams in 2015, “If I was still in Hawaii instead of having transferred to Texas, I would be still teaching there today.” However, in 2012, Judge Ezra’s time on the federal bench in Hawaii concluded, and he returned to San Antonio to take a seat on the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas where he currently serves as a senior judge hearing cases in both San Antonio and Austin. When Judge Ezra left the federal bench in Hawaii, he was the longest serving federal judge in Hawaii’s history. [16]Video Oral History with Judge David A. Ezra, Interview with Dan Williams, Video Oral History of Judge David Ezra of the District Court for the District of Hawaii, YOUTUBE (July 14, 2015), … Continue reading

Judge Ezra’s long and successful career has garnered him significant recognition in the form of awards and membership in prestigious law organizations. He has received numerous awards from St. Mary’s Law School including the Rosewood Gavel Award (2007), Lifetime Achievement Award (2013), and the Distinguished Law Graduate Award (2017). Judge Ezra has also received the University of Hawaii’s Alumni Association Lifetime Achievement Award (2013). [17] The Hon. David Ezra, St. Mary’s University School of Law, https://law.stmarytx.edu/academics/faculty/david-ezra/ In addition to his awards from the two schools, Judge Ezra was also invited to join the Judicial Conference of the United States, where he has served on numerous councils within the organization, including the Budget and Finance Advisory Council and the Council of Administration of the Bankruptcy System. Additionally, Judge Ezra is also a member of the Ninth Circuit Historical Society and the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference. Judge Ezra is also currently listed as a practicing faculty member at St. Mary’s School of Law in San Antonio, Texas. [18] Senior U.S. District Judge David A Ezra, United States District Court Western District of Texas, https://www.txwd.uscourts.gov/court-staff/senior-u-s-district-judge-david-a-ezra/ 

By Christopher Hohman, St. Mary’s University Law Fellows in Public History (2022) 

References

References
1 Video Oral History with Judge David A. Ezra, interview with Dan Williams, Video Oral History of Judge David Ezra of the District Court for the District of Hawaii, YOUTUBE (July 14, 2015), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBYrT-Nu9YU&ab_channel=NinthJudicialCircuitHistoricalSociety
2 Guillermo Contreras, Hawaiian Judge coming to Alamo City, MySA (Dec. 25, 2012), https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/Hawaiian-judge-coming-to-Alamo-City-4145437.php
3 Video Oral History with Judge David A. Ezra, interview with Dan Williams, Video Oral History of Judge David Ezra of the District Court for the District of Hawaii, YOUTUBE (July 14, 2015), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBYrT-Nu9YU&ab_channel=NinthJudicialCircuitHistoricalSociety
4 The Hon. David Ezra, St. Mary’s University School of Law, https://law.stmarytx.edu/academics/faculty/david-ezra/
5 Video Oral History with Judge David A. Ezra, interview with Dan Williams, Video Oral History of Judge David Ezra of the District Court for the District of Hawaii, YOUTUBE (July 14, 2015), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBYrT-Nu9YU&ab_channel=NinthJudicialCircuitHistoricalSociety
6 Video Oral History with Judge David A. Ezra, Interview with Dan Williams, Video Oral History of Judge David Ezra of the District Court for the District of Hawaii, YOUTUBE (July 14, 2015), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBYrT-Nu9YU&ab_channel=NinthJudicialCircuitHistoricalSociety
7 Video Oral History with Judge David A. Ezra, Interview with Dan Williams, Video Oral History of Judge David Ezra of the District Court for the District of Hawaii, YOUTUBE (July 14, 2015), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBYrT-Nu9YU&ab_channel=NinthJudicialCircuitHistoricalSociety
8 Video Oral History with Judge David A. Ezra, Interview with Dan Williams, Video Oral History of Judge David Ezra of the District Court for the District of Hawaii, YOUTUBE (July 14, 2015), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBYrT-Nu9YU&ab_channel=NinthJudicialCircuitHistoricalSociety
9 Video Oral History with Judge David A. Ezra, Interview with Dan Williams, Video Oral History of Judge David Ezra of the District Court for the District of Hawaii, YOUTUBE (July 14, 2015), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBYrT-Nu9YU&ab_channel=NinthJudicialCircuitHistoricalSociety
10 Hawaii HB 200, HD1, SDI, CDI State Budget, Section 48, Act (2003 Legislature). https://www.hawaiipublicschools.org/Reports/LEG04FelixConsentDecree.pdf
11 Video Oral History with Judge David A. Ezra, Interview with Dan Williams, Video Oral History of Judge David Ezra of the District Court for the District of Hawaii, YOUTUBE (July 14, 2015), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBYrT-Nu9YU&ab_channel=NinthJudicialCircuitHistoricalSociety
12 Rice v. Cayetano, Oyez , https://www.oyez.org/cases/1999/98-818 (last visited Oct 14, 2022).
13 Video Oral History with Judge David A. Ezra, Interview with Dan Williams, Video Oral History of Judge David Ezra of the District Court for the District of Hawaii, YOUTUBE (July 14, 2015), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBYrT-Nu9YU&ab_channel=NinthJudicialCircuitHistoricalSociety
14 Rice v. Cayetano, Oyez , https://www.oyez.org/cases/1999/98-818 (last visited Oct 14, 2022).
15 Video Oral History with Judge David A. Ezra, Interview with Dan Williams, Video Oral History of Judge David Ezra of the District Court for the District of Hawaii, YOUTUBE (July 14, 2015), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBYrT-Nu9YU&ab_channel=NinthJudicialCircuitHistoricalSociety
16 Video Oral History with Judge David A. Ezra, Interview with Dan Williams, Video Oral History of Judge David Ezra of the District Court for the District of Hawaii, YOUTUBE (July 14, 2015), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBYrT-Nu9YU&ab_channel=NinthJudicialCircuitHistoricalSociety
17 The Hon. David Ezra, St. Mary’s University School of Law, https://law.stmarytx.edu/academics/faculty/david-ezra/
18 Senior U.S. District Judge David A Ezra, United States District Court Western District of Texas, https://www.txwd.uscourts.gov/court-staff/senior-u-s-district-judge-david-a-ezra/