By restricting acceptance to students of Hawaiian ancestry, Kamehameha Schools for 120 years operated under a single, unifying interpretation of Bernice Pauahi Bishop's founding charge — the "support and education of orphans, and others in indigent circumstances, giving the preference to Hawaiians of pure or part aboriginal blood."
But on June 23, 2003, attorneys for a plaintiff known only as John Doe filed a civil-rights suit against the school in U.S. District Court, citing the federal statute that prohibits racial discrimination in contracts. While that challenge to Hawaiian-only entitlements was not the first to occur, the suit sparked heated and emotional debate about the status of Native Hawaiians and the unique place they occupy in America.
A year earlier, a non-Hawaiian student was admitted to the school's Maui campus on the grounds that all qualified Hawaiian applicants already had been accepted, a decision that angered many alumni.
Five months after the civil-rights suit was filed, U.S. District Judge Alan Kay ruled against John Doe, allowing Kamehameha to continue its Hawaiian-preference admissions policy because of its unique and historical circumstances.
Attorneys John Goemans and Eric Grant, who also agreed to drop one of two federal challenges to the policy in exchange for the school allowing a non-Hawaiian seventh-grade student to continue in the school until graduation, filed an appeal. That student had been admitted in 2003 under a federal court settlement.
In August 2005, a panel of three judges of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 in favor of John Doe, saying the school's admissions policy constituted unlawful racial discrimination. The student, however, was not allowed to enroll in the school pending a request by Kamehameha Schools for hearing by the full court.
The appellate decision was met with outrage by supporters of the school, and an estimated 20,000 students, alumni and others rallied on all islands in protest. In Honolulu, thousands marched two miles to Mauna'ala, the Royal Mausoleum, where the princess is buried.
The 9th Circuit in February 2006 granted Kamehameha's request for a re-hearing before the full court of the August 2005 decision. The full panel heard both sides' arguments on June 20, but a decision could take months.
