Students, staff and leadership from Kamehameha Schools, along with Native Hawaiian practitioners and their supporters, gathered at ʻIolani Palace to rally against the latest legal threat to the school’s admissions policy.
Hundreds attended the Tuesday morning rally in response to a lawsuit filed Monday that challenges the private school’s longstanding policy of giving preference to Native Hawaiians.
“We will fight these legal challenges to our admissions policy with all the resources available to us. We are warriors. We fight, we win,” said Crystal Kauilani Rose, the chair of the school’s Board of Trustees, at the rally. “We won 20 years ago. We understand the law and we understand the facts, and the law and the facts are on our side.”
The lawsuit filed this week by a Virginia-based group called Students for Fair Admissions, on behalf of two anonymous non-Hawaiian families, argues that Kamehameha’s "race-based admissions policy is illegal."
"It continues to harm families, like SFFA’s members, whose children cannot fairly compete for admission because they were born in the wrong family tree," the lawsuit said.
The private school system noted that its founder, Princess Bernice Pauahi Pākī Bishop, in her will, dedicated “her estate to educate Native Hawaiians, much as families today create trusts for their descendants. Her will and the rights of her beneficiaries carry a unique political status, rooted in the Hawaiian Kingdom and affirmed in U.S. and international law.”
The school said it is entirely privately funded, and gets no state or federal assistance. It's been dedicated to teaching Native Hawaiians since its opening in 1887.
A court decision in the 2003 lawsuit said the Kamehameha’s policy “serves a legitimate remedial purpose,” which is “that through proper education they might be competitive with newcomers to Hawaii in maintaining their socioeconomic status, culture, and participate in the governance of their communities.”
In the time since the unlawful overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom, the U.S. government has formally apologized for and has sought to make amends for Native Hawaiians, who have since faced disproportionate challenges accessing economic, health and education opportunities.
While history has been favorable to Kamehameha’s admissions policy so far, there are concerns this time around.
A lawsuit filed in 2003 by an anonymous student also challenged the school's policy. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals narrowly ruled in favor of the school in an 8-7 vote.
Kamehameha settled the case for $7 million just before the U.S. Supreme Court was scheduled to decide on whether it would hear the case.
KS Board Chair Rose was retained as an outside attorney for that 2003 lawsuit. Moses Haia, another attorney at the rally, submitted an amicus curiae brief for the case.
Haia, the former executive director for the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation, said the higher number of conservative judges in the federal courts these days could be less in favor of policies that promote “diversity, equity and inclusion” — one of the primary targets of the Trump administration.
“There is a significant concern for me based upon who the judges are and what their leaning is at the 9th Circuit. KS is standing up and I totally believe the law's on their side, but I don't think the law matters when it gets to a certain point, … and that's the significant concern,” Haia said, referencing Trump’s history of not complying with unfavorable court rulings.
State Rep. Darius Kila, who attended Tuesday's rally, said he’s still hopeful that Kamehameha’s admissions policy will prevail again, but also noted the concerns about the courts.
“ We would be ignorant to not acknowledge that previous administrations and previous court circumstances have allowed Pauahi to always prevail,” he said, adding that while Hawaiʻi's state and federal courts would likely uphold the KS policy, the U.S. Supreme Court is a different story.
Hawaiʻi Public Radio exists to serve all of Hawai’i, and it’s the people of Hawai’i who keep us independent and strong. Help keep us strong to serve you in the future. Donate today.
