A lawyer seeking to challenge Kamehameha Schools' Hawaiians-first admission policy believes his case will be helped by the U.S. Supreme Court's decision this week that said the use of racial guidelines to integrate public schools is unconstitutional.

"This decision reaffirms that racial classifications are highly disfavored," Honolulu lawyer David Rosen said.

But Kamehameha Schools officials don't think the ruling will have any effect because the decision involves public schools and Kamehameha is a private school that doesn't accept federal money, according to schools' spokeswoman Ann Botticelli.

In a 5-4 ruling on Thursday, the high court struck down integration policies by public schools in Seattle and Louisville, Ky., because some students were excluded because of race.

The decision does not have any direct impact on Hawai'i's public schools. The Department of Education does not use race as a criteria in school enrollment, according to the department.

But the ruling may have consequences for Kamehameha Schools, according to critics of the schools' admission policy.

Rosen, who has been trying to gather plaintiffs for a lawsuit challenging the policy, said the high court reaffirmed that race cannot be the only factor in school enrollment cases.

"Their admissions policy is going to be determined illegal or unconstitutional," he said.

Rosen sought plaintiffs for his case in the wake of Kamehameha Schools paying an undisclosed amount of money to an unnamed non-Native Hawaiian teenager who contended the policy violated federal civil-rights laws. The settlement was reached before the U.S. Supreme Court decided whether to hear the case.

Botticelli noted that the high court ruled on constitutional issues, while the case that was settled involved federal civil-rights laws.

"The policies at issue in the public schools cases were aimed at 'rebalancing' the ethnic makeup of their student populations to mirror that of the respective school districts," she said.

"Our policy is aimed at providing a specific remedy to an indigenous people, who continue to suffer severe educational deficits in their own homeland."

Reach Ken Kobayashi at kkobayashi@honoluluadvertiser.com.