During a hearing for Xincheng Wang, who is charged with obstructing an immigration officer at Amata Kabua International Airport on his arrival in Majuro in December, assistant public defender Karotu Tiba on Monday told Chief Justice Carl Ingram that he could not represent Wang because he had been instructed by Chief Public Defender Russell Kun that their office no longer takes Chinese clients.
Ingram declared this illegal, and directed Tiba to represent Wang.
“The court concludes that this ‘no Chinese’ directive is unlawful and of no force and effect for two reasons,” Ingram ruled late last month. He cited the country’s Constitution that states a person cannot be discriminated against based on national origin or place of birth, and said the law establishing the public defender’s office does not allow it to reject Chinese clients.
Kun issued the directive in January after he was forced to withdraw from representing a Chinese woman charged with prostitution because he had earlier given legal advice to two Chinese women who allegedly had been forced into prostitution and were testifying for the prosecution. His failure to alert the court that he had represented prosecution witnesses required him to pull out from case. He issued the directive immediately after this, publicly announcing that the public defender’s office would represent citizens only.
But the chief justice ruled this is an unconstitutional action. Ingram said it is possible to limit service to clients based on a financial need test, but not on the basis of national origin.
