Roger Clegg, president and general counsel for the Center for Equal Opportunity of Falls Church, Va., said he believes that the Kamehameha Schools agreed to settle the case because "they stood a good chance of losing before the Supreme Court."

"My suspicion is that they opened their wallets in a big way to make this case go away," said Clegg, whose organization filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case.

"I think the 9th (U.S.) Circuit decision was wrong and deserved to be reversed and I think the policy of the school should be changed."

In 2003, a non-Hawaiian student known as "John Doe" claimed that the 120-year-old Kamehameha Schools violated civil rights law by excluding applicants who have no Hawaiian blood.

The admission policy was upheld by 15 judges of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in December, but the case had been waiting Supreme Court action before it was settled.

"It's unusual for somebody to have won a case en banc then settle it on the steps of the Supreme Court," said Clegg, who said he was not aware of the details of the settlement.

"You would think that it would happen only if the winning party was afraid that they were going to lose before the Supreme Court."