Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA), an organization founded to eliminate “affirmative action” in higher education, has now turned its sights on the private, trust-funded K-12 institution, Kamehameha Schools (KS). On Monday, SFFA filed a federal lawsuit against the trustees of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop estate, seeking to end KS’ policy “to give preference to applicants of Hawaiian ancestry to the extent permitted by law.”
The suit amounts to an attack on KS’ very existence, ignoring the school’s history, which predates Hawaii statehood. Kamehameha Schools and the Bishop Estate—the trust formed to support it—were established under very different circumstances than those that gave rise to affirmative action policies, which emerged from the U.S. civil rights movement and the nation’s history of slavery.
However, KS is now being targeted based on SFFA’s simplistic goal of ending all “race-conscious” admissions in education. It is important to note that KS does not legally or traditionally base its operations on race as an exclusionary tactic, and it asks for and receives no federal funding. Despite this, the institution’s efforts to maintain its historic character may now face a hostile reception in federal courts—a significant challenge that must be overcome.
In fact, KS does not practice “affirmative action.” The school serves those of Native Hawaiian ancestry because they are a specific political class—descendants of those who lived on and held sovereignty over these islands long before the arrival of Americans. Those who oppose KS’ mission to serve Hawaiian students promote so-called “color blind” policies that also turn a blind eye to Hawaii’s unique history and Hawaiians’ singular legal and political status.
This case brings a sense of déjà vu for longtime residents of Hawaii. In 2003, Doe v. Kamehameha Schools challenged KS’ preference for Native Hawaiian applicants, alleging racial discrimination in violation of federal law. A full-panel decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the policy. However, that decision now appears legally vulnerable: the majority opinion justified the school’s admissions preference as a “remedy” for the historical disadvantages faced by Native Hawaiians.
Last week, in response to SFFA’s challenge, KS Board of Trustees Chair Crystal Rose—a lawyer who represented KS and the Bishop Estate in the Doe litigation—stated, “The law and the facts are on our side.” Yet there is little certainty in “the law” in this era. Courts have shifted to the right, with the U.S. Supreme Court leading the way.
In a landmark 2023 case initiated by SFFA, the Supreme Court ruled that race-conscious college admissions at Harvard and the University of North Carolina were unlawful. Quoting the historic decision in Brown v. Board of Education, the Court declared, “The time for making distinctions based on race” in education has “passed.” This ruling has been described as “the end of affirmative action,” and the high court appears poised to overturn any policies defended as a “remedy” to racial injustice, such as the 9th Circuit’s decision in the Doe case.
The Chronicle of Higher Education recently published an analysis titled “Why Colleges Can No Longer Trust the Courts,” noting that “the Supreme Court has repeatedly shown a willingness to reject or fundamentally reframe precedent,” amid an executive branch taking “an aggressive and adversarial stance.” Reliance on 20th-century legal precedent can now be a liability for institutions, and KS must take note.
While past defenses citing racial injustice—which certainly exists—have been powerful, such arguments seem to hold no sway with the current Supreme Court. Today, KS’s most compelling argument must center on Native Hawaiians as a political class, owing to Hawaiians’ historic sovereign status. They are descendants of a nation usurped without their consent.
Kamehameha Schools was founded in 1887—six years before the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Observing shifts in land ownership and power on the islands, Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, a descendant of the Kamehameha royal line, established the trust to ensure Native Hawaiian children would have access to quality education.
Eleven years after the trust and school’s founding, the then-Republic of Hawaii was annexed as an American territory. Nevertheless, the trust’s legacy wealth and land holdings were not seized, and the autonomy of Kamehameha Schools and Bishop Estate was preserved. This vestige and manifestation of sovereignty is the legal basis for KS’ continued operations.
Contrary to SFFA’s claim that KS’ preference for students of Hawaiian ancestry is “discriminatory” and “unlawful,” the institution serves Hawaiian students not because of their race, but as descendants of citizens of a pre-overthrow, pre-annexation nation. To ignore this and characterize the school’s mission as exclusionary is a misrepresentation.
As Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustee and Kamehameha Schools graduate Brickwood Galuteria states, “This is not ‘affirmative action.’ It is an act of indigenous equity rooted in Hawaii’s unique constitutional and legal recognition of Native Hawaiians as the indigenous people of this land.”
https://www.staradvertiser.com/2025/10/26/editorial/our-view/editorial-kamehamehas-admission-policy-must-be-defended/