Maka'ala Rawlins considered himself lucky when he was accepted to Kamehameha Schools as a freshman, although he did not think the school was offering him some kind of affirmative action. He was far from wealthy, but he knew he would be attending a prestigious Native Hawaiian private school that was a clear cut above a public school in quality.

"It's like another Punahou. Another Iolani. I just thought of it as an opportunity to get a better education," said Rawlins, a college scholarship counselor and community advocate in Hilo, who graduated from Kamehameha in 1997.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals invalidated Kamehameha's admissions policy Tuesday, ruling that its exclusive preference for Native Hawaiian students is illegal racial discrimination under a federal civil-rights law that guarantees equality in private contracts. The court, in a 2-to-1 ruling, rejected Kamehameha's argument that its admissions policy was a valid affirmative action plan necessary to reverse the educational and socioeconomic disadvantages of Native Hawaiians.

The ruling was the latest by the federal courts to take a limited view of affirmative action, which, since the civil-rights movement of the 1960s, has been seen as a temporary mechanism to attack historic patterns of racial discrimination and move the nation closer to a colorblind society. But, more subtly, it showed the difficulty of fitting the Native Hawaiian experience into laws that were primarily written to protect and advance the rights of black people and other racial minorities.

Many Hawaiians are troubled by the depiction of Kamehameha Schools as affirmative action and the acknowledgment by the school's lawyers that the admissions policy is racial. The school, part of a $6 billion trust established by the will of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, was founded before the 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom and many believe should be judged in a political context.

A Native Hawaiian federal recognition bill would give Hawaiians status similar to American Indians and Alaska Natives, with the right to form their own government that could negotiate with the United States and the state of Hawai'i. The bill, now before the U.S. Senate, could give Native Hawaiians a stronger legal claim to defend Kamehameha and other Hawaiian-only programs as political and untangle the obvious conflicts with civil-rights law.

"I think the courts will continue to look very closely at any racial classifications," said Neil Richards, an associate professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis and a former law clerk to Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist.

The Supreme Court's seminal case on affirmation action came in 1978, when the justices ruled that strict racial quotas at the University of California Davis medical school were unconstitutional. But the court held that race could be used as a factor in college admissions because the state had a compelling interest in promoting diversity.

In 2003, the court upheld an admissions policy at the University of Michigan law school that used race as one of many factors in weighing prospective students. But the court rejected the admissions policy for the university's undergraduates because race was a decisive factor, virtually guaranteeing that all qualified minority applicants would be accepted over similarly qualified whites. Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who wrote the majority opinion in the law-school decision, found the use of racial classifications so potentially dangerous that they should not be made permanent.

"We expect that 25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary to further the interest approved today," wrote O'Connor, who is retiring from the court.

The appeals court in the Kamehameha case — since it was dealing with a private institution — looked for guidance in a 1979 Supreme Court decision that upheld a training program at Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corp. that reserved half of its slots for black workers. The United Steelworkers of America and Kaiser argued that the preferences would increase the number of black workers in skilled-craft jobs, ending patterns of segregation, while still allowing white workers to advance at the company.

Kamehameha's admissions policy, the appeals court found by comparison, amounted to an "absolute bar" for non-Hawaiians. "Indeed," the court wrote, "the sub-text to the schools' policy — that of all those who are found in poverty, homelessness, crime and other socially or economically disadvantaged circumstances, only native Hawaiians count" reinforced race as a determining factor.

Asked last week whether she agrees with Kamehameha that the school's admissions policy is part of a valid affirmative action plan, Gov. Linda Lingle deflected the question. Although the governor called the appeals court decision "a bad ruling," she said the state would focus on the political relationship between Native Hawaiians and the federal government as it defends legal challenges to the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.

"My position on the admissions policy is that it's not about race, it's about a political relationship between the Hawaiian people and the American government," Lingle said. "And the fact is you could go to Kamehameha Schools right now and you could find people who are 95 percent Caucasian and 5 percent Hawaiian and they're admitted to Kamehameha Schools.

"You could find students who are 95 percent Chinese and 5 percent Hawaiian and they're admitted to Kamehameha Schools. And it's true of Filipinos, Japanese and every other ethnic group in the state. In fact, I think the school is a perfect example of the great diversity that we have in our state."

The vivid reaction to the appeals court decision, both in the Hawaiian community and within much of Hawai'i's political establishment, shows the pride and passion many have for Kamehameha.

Kamehameha's symbol as a Hawaiian institution has remained strong even though, as the appeals court noted, Pauahi had wanted instruction only in English and by Protestant teachers. It was the original trustees at the school, the court found, who determined that Pauahi intended a Native Hawaiian preference in admissions.

Some Hawaiians are disturbed that civil-rights laws initially intended to protect minorities are being used as a legal weapon against Kamehameha and other Native Hawaiian programs. Native Hawaiians continue to score among the lowest on standardized tests in public schools, and Kamehameha has long held the promise of greater opportunity for students who stand out.

Jon Osorio, the director of the Center for Hawaiian Studies at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa, said he believes there is strong compassion among all people in the state for what Hawaiians have lost since the overthrow. The state's tourism industry, he said, largely depends on preserving the host culture so people have a practical, as well as an idealistic, stake in not antagonizing Native Hawaiians.

But Osorio also said there are some in the sovereignty movement who object to the way Kamehameha Schools has been portrayed.

"There are a number of people who would argue that affirmative action has absolutely nothing to do with the Hawaiian situation since we are not Americans and the theft of our country does not in any way resemble the kind of situation that African-Americans and people of color face in the United States," Osorio said.

"Their kinds of dispossession have been very different. Ours is a matter of simply taking our government and leaving us really helpless to fight dispossession through law.

"Affirmative action implies that people who have been oppressed over a long period of time should get a helping hand in order to sort of level the playing field. As far as some Hawaiians are concerned and many activists are concerned, it's not about leveling the playing field, but giving us back our playing field.

"This is our land. This is our government. It was our nation. And so, for those people, Kamehameha's use of that argument flew in the face of what the sovereignty activists argue."

There are examples, both here and on the Mainland, of schools that promote ethnic identity and cultural awareness but do not restrict admissions based on race. Native Hawaiian-themed charter schools, which are part of the state Department of Education but also receive money from Kamehameha, are reporting some success at reaching Hawaiian children who have not done well at traditional public schools. The federal government, since the 1960s, has taken an active interest in supporting historically black colleges and universities.

Rawlins, the 1997 Kamehameha graduate, said it makes sense for Kamehameha to want to preserve Hawaiian culture and natural for Hawaiian students to want to understand their history. But he said the school should use its wealth to educate low-income children from all backgrounds. The princess had wanted a portion of the trust to be used to educate "orphans, and others in indigent circumstances, giving the preference to Hawaiians of pure or part aboriginal blood."

"I would much rather see them go back to the letter of the will and serve indigents, with a preference to Native Hawaiians," Rawlins said. "Everybody needs a good education.