'Liberal' sparks Hawaiians-only firestorm

By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer

Some have concluded that he is, at best, a white supremacist and, at worst, evil incarnate.

John Goemans, who has been in Hawai'i since statehood, has challenged Hawaiian-only programs and policies. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

"I've heard people describe me as a conservative, right-wing wacko," said John Goemans, the slightly rumpled, 69-year-old kama'aina lawyer who has a penchant for loud aloha shirts and a passion for what he believes is justice for all, including non-Hawaiians.

"I think a lot of them would be surprised to learn that I am a left-wing liberal," said Goemans, who is of Dutch and Scottish descent.

He ran with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, in the 1950s, roomed with now-U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy at the University of Virginia law school, helped Kennedy's older brother John win the Hawai'i vote and the presidency in 1960 and ran a U.S. State Department office in Hawai'i.

Today, he divides his time between Waimea on the Big Island and Pupukea on O'ahu's North Shore, while a table in the Barnes & Noble bookstore coffee shop in Kahala serves as his office.

He has been in Hawai'i since statehood, served a term in the state House as a Democrat in the early '60s, and was an aide to state Sen. Malama Solomon in the '80s, but still managed to fly "beneath the radar" before the U.S. Supreme Court found in his favor in February 2000 in the Rice v. Cayetano decision. The court held that allowing only Hawaiians to vote for OHA trustees is unconstitutional.

What was left of Goemans' anonymity may be quickly evaporating in the wake of a ruling in August by U.S. District Judge David Ezra that Kamehameha Schools would have to admit a 12-year-old non-Hawaiian boy from Kaua'i, at least temporarily, until the federal courts have a chance to examine the merits of the issue in hearings set for next month.

John W. Goemans Born: May 1, 1934, in Milwaukee Education: Undergraduate degree from Brown University, Providence, R.I.; law degree from University of Virginia, 1959 Arrived in Hawai'i: 1959 Admitted to the state bar: 1962 Residence: Divides his time between the Big Island and O'ahu. • Clients: Big Island rancher Harold "Freddy" Rice, whose lawsuit resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court in 2000 striking down the Hawaiians-only restriction in voting for Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustees. John Doe, a non-Hawaiian student, and his mother, who challenged Kamehameha Schools' Hawaiians-preference admissions policy. U.S. District Judge Alan Kay will hear the case Nov. 17. Brayden Mohica-Cummings, who was admitted temporarily to Kamehameha Schools under a federal court order, and his mother, who challenged Kamehameha Schools' Hawaiians-preference admissions policy. U.S. District Judge David Ezra will hear the case Nov. 18. Goemans also filed a federal lawsuit and is the former attorney for 17 people challenging federal and state programs benefitting only Hawaiians. U.S. District Judge Susan Mollway will hear whether the federal officials should be parties in the case on Nov. 17.

Goemans said "John Doe's" mother is a friend of his from the Big Island who asked if he could help get the boy into Kamehameha. He said Mohica-Cummings' mother contacted him after learning about the Doe case.

While Goemans came up with the two boys as plaintiffs to challenge Kamehameha Schools' admissions policy, Sacramento, Calif.-based attorney Eric Grant will likely present the arguments next month in the cases before Ezra and Kay.

And while he filed the legal challenge to Hawaiians-only voting in OHA elections, it was a high-powered Washington, D.C., law firm — Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher — that argued the case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

"He appears to be someone who is there to light the fuse, but ultimately the big bang is caused by lawyers who have far greater expertise," said former OHA Chairman Clayton Hee.

Goemans said he had "an epiphany" in the late '80s or early '90s while listening to Solomon talk about plans to use public money to form the "Hawaiian Sovereignty Elections Council." The council was to consist of Native Hawaiians who would meet to discuss methods by which Hawaiians could choose which form of sovereignty they preferred — an independent Hawaiian nation, a nation within a nation or the federal recognition given to American Indian tribes.

"The light went on in my head, and the more I began to think about it, it just seemed to me that something was rotten in the state of Denmark," Goemans said.

He fired off a letter to the local American Civil Liberties Union office believing that restricting all but one racial group from participating in a publicly financed election "was clearly a liberal issue."

He was stunned, though, by the ACLU's response. "They told me their national policy was not to challenge affirmative-action programs," Goemans said.

So he began to look for a plaintiff to take up the cause, and eventually found Big Island rancher Harold "Freddy" Rice.

Goemans filed the Rice case in April 1996 that led to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision. By June 2000, Goemans was back in federal court in Honolulu asking for $600,000 in legal fees for what he said was the four years he spent working on the Rice case. He eventually got $160,000.

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, the Washington firm that had argued the case before the Supreme Court, asked for $2.3 million and was awarded about $1.1 million.

Many Hawaiians, and some others as well, were particularly perturbed by the challenge to the admissions policy at Kamehameha, which some view as a refuge from injustices suffered by Hawaiians over 200 years.

"Haunani Trask even called me 'evil,' " Goemans said.

Trask, a Hawaiian activist and professor of Hawaiian studies at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa, acknowledged directing the term at Goemans during a cable television show she shares with her sister Mililani. "I chose that word with great care; I am a poet and a wordsmith," Trask said.

To injure others as the result of a car accident is one thing, Trask said. "But to systematically try to undo what programs there are to address the problems of the Hawaiians that began as far back as first contact, that to me is morally depraved — it is evil."

Goemans said he never expected the huge backlash to the lawsuits he has filed. He said he is surprised no one had challenged programs that he believes are so obviously constitutionally flawed, but he said he thinks he knows why: "It's called I got mine and you got yours. 'Don't mess with me and I won't mess with you.' "

Reach David Waite at dwaite@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8030.

Correction: John Goemans filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Patrick Barrett, who challenged government programs benefiting Hawaiians. He later turned the case over to another lawyer. A previous version of this story incorrectly said he had filed the lawsuit on behalf of Earl Arakaki and others who raised a similar challenge.