Updated at 9:01 a.m., Monday, May 14, 2007
Timeline for challenge to schools' admissions policy
Advertiser Staff
Here is an abbreviated history to the challenge of Kamehameha Schools' admissions policy, which effectively excludes non-Hawaiians:
June 2003 — On behalf of an unnamed non-Hawaiian student, identified only as John Doe, attorneys John Goemans and Eric Grant file a civil-rights lawsuit disputing Kamehameha's admissions policy.
August 2003 — In a separate case, a federal court orders Kamehameha Schools to enroll a non-Hawaiian boy, 12-year-old Brayden Mohica-Cummings, until a final verdict on the admissions policy is made.
November 2003 — U.S. District Judge Alan Kay decides against John Doe, ruling that Kamehameha Schools can continue its Hawaiians-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 to the school's admissions policy. The two lawyers appeal Kay's John Doe ruling.
August 2005 — By a 2-1 vote, a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decides in favor of John Doe, ruling that Kamehameha's admissions policy constitutes unlawful racial discrimination and throwing the 120-year-old policy into limbo. A week later, the same three judges deny a request by John Doe to be admitted in the fall, pending an appeal by the school.
August 2005 — About 20,000 Kamehameha students, alumni and other supporters rally on all major Hawaiian islands and the Mainland to show their support for the embattled school. At a major rally in Honolulu, thousands hear a string of fiery speeches before marching two miles to Mauna 'Ala, the Royal Mausoleum in Nu'uanu, where founder Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop is buried.
2006 — The 9th Circuit grants Kamehameha's request for an en banc rehearing of its August 2-1 decision, essentially throwing out that decision pending a review by a larger panel of 15 judges.
2006 — In an 8-7 decision, the full 9th Circuit rules that the admissions policy does not violate a federal civil rights law first enacted in 1866 to prohibit discrimination in contracts against newly freed slaves.
March 2007 — An attorney for a teenager denied entry into Kamehameha Schools ask the U.S. Supreme Court to look at the legality of the institution's admissions policy. The attorney wants the court to hear an appeal of the December 8-7 ruling.
Today — A non-Hawaiian student denied admission to Kamehameha Schools has dropped his civil rights lawsuit, which was pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. The student and the school reached a settlement to the four-year-old lawsuit and agreed to have the case dismissed.
