|
Honolulu Lite
Charles Memminger
|
Court's ruling on schools is no surprise
ALL RISE. The Honolulu Lite Subcommittee on Court Activity is now in session. You may be seated. Watch out for the whoopee cushions.
We start this session with a loud and hardy "I told you so!" When we last held court, some residents were in a lather over a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that Kamehameha Schools' policy of admitting only Hawaiian children was unconstitutional.
With wisdom gained from the diligent study of several hundred hours of "Judge Judy" reruns, I calmly counseled those upset with the ruling to hold their horses and other large farm animals because the ruling would be overturned.
The record will note that I wrote these very words on Aug. 7, 2005: "The seeming hysteria over the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling against Kamehameha Schools' Hawaiian-preference admission policy is really uncalled for. The 9th Circuit is the largest and most liberal federal appeals court in the country ... The Kamehameha ruling came from a three-judge panel, and only two of those judges ruled against Kamehameha. The schools ... can appeal to the 9th Circuit 'en banc,' a fancy French phrase that means to the 'entire court' ... and if history is any indication likely will come out with a more liberal view."
An "en banc" panel of 15 9th Circuit judges this week overturned the three-judge panel, saying restricting admissions to children of Hawaiian blood was not discriminatory because it addresses needs of a specific downtrodden indigenous population and furthers the urgent need for better education of native Hawaiians.
This ruling should silence some of the more excitable Hawaiian activists, some of whom referred to the first court ruling as "white racism." I wonder how Lilikala Kame'eleihiwa, of the Center for Hawaiian Studies, who made the racism charge, will describe this ruling by the larger mostly white panel. As I pointed out in the original column, most of Kamehameha Schools' problems can be traced not to white racism, but to the greedy actions of corrupt millionaire Hawaiian trustees who cared more about getting rich than educating Hawaiians. It was those trustees, now gone, who turned away six out of seven Hawaiian children applying for admission.
And while they were doing it, the Hawaiian community, beneficiaries of Princess Bernice Bishop's extraordinary legacy, sat back in silence. I bring this up only because the original charge of "white racism" not only was offensive, but showed an embarrassing lack of understanding of the federal court system, which has been the most aggressive in the world in correcting racial inequities. How about giving a bit of credit when it's due?
That said, this case inevitably will end up at the U.S. Supreme Court, which has had no problem smacking around the 9th Circuit's sillier rulings. (Recall, it was the 9th Circuit that ruled the Pledge of Allegiance was unconstitutional because it referred to God.)
The 9th Circuit's Kamehameha ruling is not silly and I predict the Supreme Court will find some way to grant native Hawaiians certain privileges as an indigenous group, in the same way it does for American Indian tribes. As I said before, the Akaka Bill may yet find life -- especially now that the Democrats have retaken Congress -- and the United States may grant some sort of sovereignty to native Hawaiians. It may take years for the Akaka Bill to become law and for the Kamehameha Schools 9th Circuit decision to reach the U.S. Supreme Court, but that doesn't mean the system is corrupt or racist, it just means that when 8,000 lawyers and politicians are involved in anything, time slows down to the speed of smell.
And for proof that our country's federal court system, though not perfect, does often "get it right," we now move to this week's U.S. Supreme Court decision that allows Hawaii to ban aerial banners over Waikiki showing images of aborted fetuses. A mainland anti-abortion group wants to decorate Hawaii's skies with the revolting images pulled behind airplanes but the high court, by refusing the case, allowed that Hawaii has the right to protect its iconic postcard views from such blight. Free speech does not extend to yelling "fire" in a movie theater or dragging photos of dead babies behind a plane to the horror of sunbathers, especially sunbathers who paid a lot of money to get here. Hawaii skies are not billboards on which special interest groups of any stripe get to graffiti their message at will.
All rise. This session is concluded. File dissenting opinions with the clerk and take your whoopee cushions as you leave.
Charles Memminger, the National Society of Newspaper Columnists' 2004 First Place Award winner for humor writing, appears Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. E-mail
cmemminger@starbulletin.com