Kamehameha plaintiffs say past injustices not issue
By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer
Lawyers for two non-Hawaiian youths who are challenging Kamehameha Schools' Hawaiians-preferred admissions policy say that giving preference to Hawaiian students to make up for past injustices is not relevant to two cases pending in federal court.
In court papers filed this week, attorneys Eric Grant and John Goemans say their argument is simple — one based on a claim that the policy violates a federal civil rights law that prohibits racial discrimination.
Kamehameha lawyers are arguing that race-based discrimination is not illegal in certain limited instances where it is aimed at making up for past injustices.
In court papers filed Sept. 29, the Kamehameha lawyers included statements from prominent Hawai'i residents — including Gov. Linda Lingle, former Gov. George Ariyoshi and First Hawaiian Bank CEO Walter Dods — who said the admissions policy is a way to address the past wrongs against Hawaiians.
But in their latest court filing, Goemans and Grant said the courts should not even consider the argument of past injustices.
"Notwithstanding all of the pages Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate devotes to the matter, the motions — and the whole case for that matter — do not call upon this court to address the depth of the historical and present-day suffering of Native Hawaiians," Goemans and Grant said. "Without in any way denigrating that story, one can respectfully say that it is not relevant to the legal questions at hand."
They said the legal question at hand 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, and whether self-described laudable intentions will trump the nation's long-cherished civil rights laws."
The filings apply to two challenges of the Kamehameha admissions policy that are to be heard Nov. 17 and 18 by U.S. District Judges David Ezra and Alan Kay. Both sides of the issue are asking the judges decide on the cases without sending them to trial.
One is the case mounted for Brayden Mohica-Cummings, a 12-year-old non-Hawaiian boy whose admission the school sought to rescind; the other concerns an unnamed non-Hawaiian boy who contends he is eligible and willing to attend Kamehameha but cannot because he is not of Hawaiian ancestry.
Both lawsuits claim that the school's policy violates an 1866 federal civil rights law enacted to protect former slaves from discrimination in contracts.
Reach David Waite at dwaite@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8030.
