Historical look 'not relevant'
| • | Kamehameha grateful for support as it defends admissions policy in court |
Advertiser Staff
Lawyers for two young people whose lawsuits against Kamehameha Schools will be heard this week say the school's admissions policies violate federal laws against racial discrimination.
The argument that the Hawaiian-preference admission policy is justified as a way to make up for past injustices to Hawaiians is simply not relevant, they argue.
In court filings, attorneys Eric Grant and John Goemans argued that the court should not even be required to look at the historical experience of Hawaiians.
"The motions ... do not call upon the court to address the depth of the historical and present-day suffering of Native Hawaiians," they said. "Without in any way denigrating that story, one can respectfully say that it is not relevant to the legal questions at hand."
And that question, they offered, "is whether in 21st-century America, a great Hawaiian institution will be permitted to enforce a 19th-century view of race relations by categorically excluding children of non-'preferred' races ... "
