A federal magistrate will rule on whether the non-Hawaiian students challenging the Kamehameha Schools' 121-year-old admissions policy can remain anonymous.

U.S. Magistrate Barry Kurren took the matter under advisement after holding an hourlong, closed-door hearing yesterday.

Eric Grant, the Sacramento, Calif., attorney for the four unnamed students who sued the Kamehameha Schools, declined comment yesterday.

Paul Alston, attorney for the Kamehameha Schools, also had no response.

The Does — Jacob, Janet, Karl and Lisa — are seeking to overturn Kamehameha Schools' Hawaiian-preference admission policy, saying it violates federal civil rights laws.

They filed suit Aug. 6, alleging they were denied entry because of their ethnicity. Pursuing the latest lawsuit along with Grant is local attorney David Rosen.

Grant earlier represented a non-Hawaiian Big Island youth, identified in court papers only as John Doe, who filed a similar claim against the school's admissions policy in 2003, but agreed to drop the suit last year after pursuing it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

As part of the settlement, Kamehameha Schools agreed to pay $7 million to John Doe but kept its admissions policy intact.

Still ongoing is a separate lawsuit filed by trustees for the schools on the Big Island against John Doe and Jane Doe, the student and parent who filed the 2003 admissions lawsuit.

The trustees' suit seeks an unspecified amount of damages because John Goemans, an attorney who once represented the Does, revealed to The Advertiser in February the confidential terms of the $7 million settlement paid by the school to the Does.

The agreement specified that a party breaching the confidentiality agreement could be found liable for damages of as much as $2 million.