The events of the past few weeks mark the latest chapter in the history of Native Hawaiian legal issues. Here are some other recent events:

1996 — Harold "Freddy" Rice, a Caucasian fifth-generation kama'aina, sues the state (Rice v. Cayetano) after being barred from voting in an Office of Hawaiian Affairs election.

February 2000 — The U.S. Supreme Court rules on Rice v. Cayetano, saying OHA's Hawaiian-only elections violate the 15th Amendment's ban on race-based voting restrictions.

July 2000 — U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawai'i, introduces the Akaka bill to protect federal funding of Hawaiian entitlements in the wake of the Rice v. Cayetano decision and to clarify the political status of Native Hawaiians, setting them on a course to federal recognition.

September 2000 — U.S. District Judge Helen Gillmor grants a motion filed by 13 non-Native Hawaiian residents to bar state chief election officer Dwayne Yoshina from stopping non-Hawaiians from running for the OHA board of trustees. The case was filed in late summer and expedited because of the impending fall elections.

December 2000 — The Akaka bill dies in the waning days of the 106th Congress. Sens. Akaka and Dan Inouye pledge to resurrect the bill in the new session.

March 2002 — A group of 16 plaintiffs files a lawsuit, known as Arakaki v. Cayetano, challenging the constitutionality of tax-supported programs benefiting only Native Hawaiians. The programs include the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and OHA.

2002 — A non-Hawaiian boy is admitted to the Maui campus of Kamehameha Schools. The Ho'oulu Hawaiian Data Center is established to develop a registry of the Hawaiian population and to certify the Hawaiian ancestry of applicants.

June 2003 — On behalf of an unnamed non-Hawaiian student, attorneys John Goemans and Eric Grant file a civil-rights lawsuit disputing the Kamehameha Schools' Hawaiian-preference admissions policy. Goemans says he believes that the courts eventually will eliminate Native Hawaiian programs.

August 2003 - A federal court orders Kamehameha Schools to enroll a non-Hawaiian boy, 12-year-old Brayden Mohica-Cummings, until a final verdict on the admission policy is made.

November 2003 — U.S. District Judge Alan Kay rules that Kamehameha Schools can continue its Hawaiians-only preference admissions policy because of its unique and historical circumstances.

November 2003 — Trustees for Kamehameha Schools approve a settlement allowing a seventh-grade non-Hawaiian student to continue attending the private school until he graduates. In exchange, Grant and Goemans, the lawyers for Mohica-Cummings, agree to drop one of their two federal court challenges of the school's Hawaiian-preference admissions policy. The John Doe case remains.

January 2004 — U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway dismisses the Arakaki v. Cayetano suit (now known as Arakaki v. Lingle). Mollway rules that the court should not interfere with the ongoing congressional debate over Hawaiians' political status by deciding on the constitutionality of Hawaiian entitlements.

July 2005 — Attempts to bring the Akaka bill before the U.S. Senate are blocked by several Republican senators. The earliest the bill will reach the floor is September.

August 2005 — A federal appeals court reverses the lower court decision on John Doe and declares that Kamehameha Schools' admissions policy giving preference to Native Hawaiians violates civil rights laws. Less than a week later, an estimated 20,000 supporters of the school hold marches and rallies statewide, including 15,000 who march from 'Iolani Palace to Mauna 'Ala, the Royal Mausoleum.