August 6, 2005
Contributed by Thomas Yoshida
"This fight is far from over," declared Board of Trustees Chair Diane Plotts. "This case raises unique questions of unsettled law, and we believe the panel's ruling is wrong. Two judges ruled against our policy, but the Chief Judge of the panel dissented. There are 28 judges on the 9th Circuit Court, and there is a very good chance a different panel will agree with Judge Susan Graber and support our right to offer preference to Native Hawaiians. For that reason, we will immediately request a hearing before a full panel of the 9th Circuit Court.
"Our current admissions and our current students will not be immediately affected by today's ruling. If our petition for rehearing before the Ninth Circuit is unsuccessful, we will appeal to the U.S. Supreme court, and ask the court to order an extended stay of the ruling until the appeal process is completed," said CEO Dee Jay Mailer.
In its ruling, the panel acknowledged that Kamehameha Schools' policy serves a remedial purpose, but Judges Jay Bybee and Robert Beezer opined that the policy is not justified because it effectively excludes all non-Hawaiians.
In her dissent, Judge Graber wrote that the many statutes enacted by Congress to provide exclusive remedial preferences for Native Hawaiians demonstrate that "Congress clearly meant to allow the private education of native Hawaiian children at the Kamehameha Schools."
"Losing our policy would be a serious setback for us, because it would take away the most direct route we have to provide educational resources to restore and rebuild the Hawaiian people. It is our kuleana as trustees to protect our policy and we are absolutely committed to that," said Plotts.
"It is also our kuleana to fulfill our educational mission," added Mailer. "As we fight in the courts, we will continue to educate Hawaiian students through our campus programs. We will continue to extend our reach to our Hawaiian communities, as mandated by our Strategic Plan. We will examine and evaluate how every educational initiative fits with our mission, to make sure that we are serving as many Hawaiian children as we possibly can. And we will continue to work toward the goals established in our Strategic Plan, to foster understanding and widespread practice of all things Hawaiian in order to further strengthen the Hawaiian culture."
Today's order does not specifically address the admission of John Doe. That question will be remanded to the U.S. District Court here in Honolulu.
Kamehameha Schools’ policy is to give preference to applicants of Hawaiian ancestry to the extent permitted by law.
