Group joins Hawaiian
Home Lands case

A group of Hawaiians joins the
lawsuit to protect their interests

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By B.J. Reyes
Associated Press

A group representing native Hawaiians on or waiting to get on the list for Hawaiian Home Lands leases has been granted a request to join a legal case that challenges such programs as unconstitutional.

In a ruling issued Tuesday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Kevin S.C. Chang granted the motion filed on behalf of Hui Kakoo Aina Hoopulapula and individuals Blossom Feiteira and Dutchy Saffery.

Chang agreed with their attorneys' argument that people who may be entitled to homestead land should be allowed to join the lawsuit to protect their interests in case the courts rule against the Hawaiian programs and shut them down.

His order notes that if the programs are discontinued, the lawsuit names only existing homesteaders as those who would be affected by any negotiations over land.

Those who are on or waiting to get on the waiting list "would be omitted from this negotiation, and no one would be representing their claimed interest under the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act," Chang's order stated.

Attorneys for both sides in the case did not immediately return telephone messages seeking comment yesterday.

A multiethnic group of Hawaii residents sued the state in March charging that the Hawaiian Homes program and Office of Hawaiian Affairs are unconstitutional race discrimination. Their lawsuit seeks an order shutting down OHA and the homestead programs for more than 200,000 native Hawaiians and part-Hawaiians.

At a July 2 hearing, plaintiffs' attorney Patrick Hanifin argued that allowing the groups to join the lawsuit would lead to more groups trying to do the same. H. William Burgess, another plaintiffs' attorney, said the issue of what to do with the waiting list could be addressed once a ruling has been handed down.

Later this month, U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway is scheduled to hear a plaintiffs' motion seeking to have OHA and the Hawaiian Homes program shut down until the case is decided.

The lawsuit, filed March 4, is based on the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark Feb. 23, 2000, Rice vs. Cayetano decision, which struck down the Hawaiians-only requirement to vote in an OHA election as racial discrimination.

Within the past year, two other challenges to OHA were thrown out after the court determined the plaintiffs lacked standing.

But Mollway ruled in March that the 16 multiethnic plaintiffs have standing as taxpayers because both programs receive money from the state's general fund.