Doe v. Kamehameha Schools/Bernice Pauahi Bishop
| Decision Date | 08 December 2003 |
| Docket Number | No. CIV. 03-00316 ACK/LE.,CIV. 03-00316 ACK/LE. |
| Citation | 295 F.Supp.2d 1141 |
| Parties | John DOE, a minor, by his mother and next friend, Jane Doe, Plaintiff, v. KAMEHAMEHA SCHOOLS/BERNICE PAUAHI BISHOP ESTATE; and Constance H. Lau, Nainoa Thompson, Diane J. Plotts, Robert K.U. Kihune, and J. Douglas Ing, in their capacities as Trustees of the Kamehameha Schools/Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estate, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Hawaii |
John W. Goemans, Kamuela, HI, Eric Grant, James F. Sweeney, Sweeney & Grant LLP, Sacramento, CA, for John Doe, a minor, by his mother and next friend, Jane Doe nfr Jane Doe, plaintiff.
David Schulmeister, Kelly G. LaPorte, Cades Schutte Fleming & Wright, Honolulu, HI, Kathleen Sullivan, Stanford Law School, Special Deputy Corporation Counsel, Crown Quadrangle, Stanford, CA, Emmett B. Lewis, Jay L. Carlson, Miller & Chevalier, Washington, DC, for Kamehameha Schools/Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estate, Diane J. Plotts, in her capacity as Trustee of the Kamehmeha Schools/Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estate.
David Schulmeister, Crystal K. Rose, Bruce D. Voss, Bays Deaver Lung Rose & Baba, Honolulu, HI, Kathleen Sullivan, Stanford Law School, Special Deputy Corporation Counsel, Crown Quadrangle, Stanford, CA, Emmett B. Lewis, Jay L. Carlson, Miller & Chevalier, Washington, DC, for Constance Lau, in her capacity as Trustee of the Kamehameha Schools/Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estate, Nainoa Thompson, in his capacity as Trustee of the Kamehameha Schools/Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estate.
David Schulmeister, Cades Schutte Fleming & Wright, Honolulu, HI, Kathleen Sullivan, Stanford Law School, Special Deputy Corporation Counsel, Crown Quadrangle, Stanford, CA, Emmett B. Lewis, Jay L. Carlson, Miller & Chevalier, Washington, DC, for Robert K.U. Kihune, in his capacity as Trustee of the Kamehameha Schools/Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estate, J. Douglas Ing, in his capacity as Trustee of the Kamehameha Schools/Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estate, defendants.
Charleen M. Aina, Girard D. Lau, Office of the Atty. Gen.-Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, for State of Hawaii, amicus.
Allen K. Hoe, Honolulu, HI, for Kamehameha Schools Faculty Ass'n, Na Kumu O Kamehameha, Kamehameha Schools Alumni Ass'n-Oahu Region, Kamehameha Schools Alumni Ass'n-Bd. of Presidents, Na Pua A Ke Alii Pauahi, Inc., Amici.
Josephine H. Josephine Helelani Pauhi Rabago, Pro se, Waianae, HI.
ORDER DENYING PLAINTIFF'S MOTION FOR PARTIAL SUMMARY JUDGMENT WITH RESPECT TO DECLARATORY AND INJUNCTIVE RELIEF AND GRANTING DEFENDANTS' COUNTER-MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT
Before the Court is a case involving exceptionally unique historical circumstances. It concerns the Kamehameha Schools, which was founded under a "charitable testamentary Trust established by the last direct descendant of Hawaii's King Kamehameha I, Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, who left her property in trust for a school dedicated to the education and upbringing of Native Hawaiians." Burgert v. Lokelani Bernice Pauahi Bishop Trust, 200 F.3d 661, 663 (9th Cir.2000). Kamehameha Schools is a private entity; it receives no state or federal funding. From a historical perspective, the Kamehameha Schools was established before Hawaii became a part of the United States.
Plaintiff John Doe, a non-Native Hawaiian minor, asserts that he was denied admission to Kamehameha Schools because of his race. He therefore claims that Kamehameha Schools' admissions policy, which grants a preference to children of Native Hawaiian ancestry, the indigenous people of Hawaii, violates 42 United States Code Section 1981.1
Defendants, however, argue that the admissions policy comprises a valid, race-conscious remedial affirmative action plan, and thus serves a legitimate purpose. They argue that the policy therefore does not violate § 1981.2
The parties agree that disposition by summary judgment is appropriate, and also agree that the limited issue before the Court is whether Kamehameha Schools has a "legitimate justification" for its admissions policy. The Court notes that Plaintiff does not dispute any of the facts submitted by Defendants.
No reported case addresses whether § 1981 permits the remedial use of race by a private school that receives no federal funding, especially one involving an educational preference for descendants of an indigenous people who have been disadvantaged by past history. The parties agree this is a case of first impression.
In Patterson v. McLean Credit Union, 491 U.S. 164, 186, 109 S.Ct. 2363, 105 L.Ed.2d 132 (1989), the Supreme Court held that claims of racial discrimination under § 1981 are subject to the same scheme of proof as applicable to Title VII cases. The Title VII framework consists of a two-step test that first looks to whether the use of race is supported by legitimate justification and then considers whether the use of race is reasonably related to that justification. The Title VII standard is not a fixed and rigid formula but rather a flexible one.
The Court finds that Kamehameha Schools has a legitimate justification for its admissions policy, which serves a legitimate remedial purpose, and that the policy reasonably relates to this purpose. The intent of Princess Pauahi, as explained through her husband Charles R. Bishop, Chairman of the original Board of Trustees, was that preference be given to Native Hawaiians for admittance to the Kamehameha Schools in order that through proper education they might be competitive with newcomers to Hawaii in maintaining their socioeconomic status, culture, and participate in the governance of their communities. Pauahi's vision, in sum, was to save her people through education.
The preference provided by the admissions policy is not perpetual nor an absolute bar to the admittance of other races to Kamehameha Schools. Kamehameha Schools reviews its admissions policy on a periodic basis to ensure its consistency with its mission and objectives in attaining the goals set out by Princess Pauahi. The most recent review took place in 2002. The preference was envisioned to last only for so long as it took Kamehameha Schools to fulfill its responsibility in educating Native Hawaiians to overcome the manifest imbalance resulting from socioeconomic and educational disadvantages, or at such earlier date when the Schools has the capacity to also admit non-Native Hawaiians. At present, Kamehameha Schools can enroll only a fraction of the 70,000 children of Native Hawaiian ancestry in the State of Hawaii.
Moreover, Congress has made repeated findings in numerous laws declaring that the Hawaiian Monarchy was unlawfully overthrown with the aid of the United States. Congress additionally has made legislative findings that the United States has a special trust obligation and political relationship to Native Hawaiians as the indigenous people of Hawaii. The Court does not address the merits of the differing views of the events surrounding the overthrow of the Hawaiian Monarchy but only recounts the 1893 events as understood by Congress. In 1993, Congress issued an acknowledgment and apology known as the Apology Resolution whereunder Congress acknowledged the United States' wrongful participation in the overthrow and sought a reconciliation with the Native Hawaiian people.
In 2002, Congress re-enacted the Native Hawaiian Education Act granting preferences to Native Hawaiians in the field of education. Congress made findings of Native Hawaiian socioeconomic and educational disadvantages similar to those which Kamehameha Schools has identified and is likewise seeking to remedy.
Congress has further acknowledged that notwithstanding its prior efforts to fulfill its special trust relationship with Native Hawaiians there is a continuing substantial need for educational assistance and that the parallel trust of Princess Pauahi establishing the Kamehameha Schools is a significant resource in meeting this need.
Section 1981 should be read in harmony with Congress's many findings regarding the needs of Native Hawaiians and with the laws Congress has enacted giving a preference to Native Hawaiians.
In sum, the Court finds that this case presents exceptionally unique circumstances involving a private school, which receives no federal funding, with a remedial race-conscious admissions plan to rectify socioeconomic and educational disadvantages resulting from the influx of western civilization. Co...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Doe v. Kamehameha Schools/Bernice Pauahi
...thereby remedying current manifest imbalances resulting from the influx of western civilization. Doe v. Kamehameha Sch./Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estate, 295 F.Supp.2d 1141, 1172 (D.Haw.2003). The district court also held that application of § 1981 to the admissions policy should be consistent ......
-
Arakaki v. Lingle
...trust relationship recognized by Congress in the "Native Hawaiian Education Act." See John Doe v. Kamehameha Schools/Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estate, 295 F.Supp.2d 1141, 1168-1174 (D.Haw.2003). Similarly, Congress has recently enacted the "Native Hawaiian Health Care Act of 1988," 42 U.S.C. §§......
-
Doe v. Kamehameha Schools/Bernice Pauahi Bishop
...entered summary judgment in favor of the Kamehameha Schools and the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estate. Doe v. Kamehameha Schs./Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estate, 295 F.Supp.2d 1141, 1172 (D.Haw.2003). This appeal Before proceeding to analyze the question presented in this appeal, it is worth clarifyi......
-
Ufo Chuting of Hawaii, Inc. v. Young
...and land-based link to the indigenous people who exercised sovereignty over the Hawaiian Islands"); see also Doe v. Kamehameha Schools, 295 F.Supp.2d 1141, 1174 n. 29 (D.Haw.2003) ("Over eighty-five congressional enactments provide preferences or services to Native Hawaiians."). Congress ma......
-
Indigenous Subjects.
...Kanaka Maoli rights and status have limited or distinguished Rice. See, e.g., Doe v. Kamehameha Schs./Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estate, 295 F. Supp. 2d 1141, 1164 (D. Haw. 2003) (declining to apply Rice or a Fourteenth Amendment framework to a challenge to a private entity under 42 U.S.C. [sect......