Media credit: supremecourtus.gov
Yesterday at lunch, in referencing some events of 2000, I noted that Rice v. Cayetano was decided about 10 years ago. Being the nerd that I am, I had to look it up. I knew that case was decided 10 years ago, but I didn’t know that yesterday was 10 years to the day that the U.S. Supreme Court decided that case. That’s right, on February 23, 2000, SCOTUS (that’s the acronym many use for the Supreme Court of the United States) issued their opinion in the case.
As a native Hawaiian, I remember following this case as it made its way through the legal system. Many Hawaiians, including one of my grandmothers, who don’t normally follow legal developments, watched this one.
Why? Because this case challenged the constitutionality of elections for OHA (Office of Hawaiian Affairs) trustees. Prior to the Court’s ruling, OHA trustees were elected by Native Hawaiians registered to vote in Hawaii and who additionally registered to vote in OHA elections. When the Court ruled this was unconstitutional, the State then opened OHA elections to all registered voters. Today, OHA trustees, although they work toward the betterment of the conditions of Native Hawaiians, their beneficiaries, they are elected statewide, where any registered voter may vote in their election.
A great resource for anyone who wants to know about cases handled by SCOTUS is oyez.org. There, you can read analysis, listen to oral arguments before the court, read a transcript of such arguments, listen to the opinion given by the Court, and read a transcript of the opinion. It’s a great resource that tries to make it easier for citizens to understand SCOTUS and the cases they hear.
Oyez says they are:
a multimedia archive devoted to the Supreme Court of the United States and its work. It aims to be a complete and authoritative source for all audio recorded in the Court since the installation of a recording system in October 1955. The Project also provides authoritative information on all justices and offers a virtual reality ‘tour’ of portions of the Supreme Court building, including the chambers of some of the justices.
And here’s what they had to say about Rice v. Cayetano:
Facts of the Case:The Hawaiian Constitution limits the right to vote for the nine trustees of the state agency known as the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA). The agency administers programs designed for the benefit of two subclasses of Hawaiian citizenry, “Hawaiians,” defined as descendants of not less than one-half part of the races inhabiting the Islands before 1778, and “native Hawaiians,” defined as descendants of the peoples inhabiting the Hawaiian Islands in 1778. Only “Hawaiians” may vote in the statewide election for the trusties. Harold Rice, born in Hawaii and a Hawaiian citizen, does not have the requisite ancestry to be a “Hawaiian” under state law. However, Rice applied to vote in OHA trustee elections. After Rice’s application was denied, he sued Hawaiian Governor Benjamin J. Cayetano, claiming that the voting exclusion was invalid under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. The Federal District Court granted the state summary judgment. The court examined the voting qualifications with the latitude applied to legislation passed pursuant to Congress’ power over Indian affairs, and found that the electoral scheme was rationally related to the state’s responsibility to utilize a part of the proceeds from certain public lands for the native Hawaiians’ benefit. In affirming, the Court of Appeals found that Hawaii “may rationally conclude that Hawaiians, being the group to whom trust obligations run and to whom OHA trustees owe a duty of loyalty, should be the group to decide who the trustees ought to be.”
Question:
Does the Hawaiian Constitutional provision, which limits the right to for the trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to qualified “Hawaiians,” violate the Fifteenth Amendment by creating a race-based voting qualification?
Conclusion:
Yes. In a 7-2 opinion delivered by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, the Court held that “Hawaii’s denial of Rice’s right to vote in OHA trustee elections violates the Fifteenth Amendment,” in creating a race-based voting qualification. “A state may not deny or abridge the right to vote on account of race, and this law does so,” Justice Kennedy wrote for the Court. The court rejected the state’s argument that the voting limitation was one based on ancestry, not race. In dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for himself and Ruth Bader Ginsburg that the majority’s decision “rests largely on the repetition of glittering generalities that have little, if any, application to the compelling history of the state of Hawaii.”
One nice feature of Oyez is their use of photos of the justices to denote the votes, so you can visually see how they voted.
One final interesting point. Ten years to the day after Rice v. Cayetano was decided by SCOTUS, the U.S. House of Representatives passed HR2314, the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act or the Akaka Bill. It’s passage was one of the last tasks Congressman Neil Abercrombie completed before coming home to campaign full-time for governor.
While the Akaka Bill is not quite the same as the issue of Rice, it is a political means to correct some of the wrongs done to Native Hawaiians that OHA was originally created to address.
Mahalo!
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Please note: The views expressed here are mine and mine alone. While I am employed by and affiliated with organizations and individuals, permission has neither been asked nor granted to write on the topics discussed here.
Not being a Native Hawaiian I was all for the decision. I as a tax paying Hawai'i resident should have every right to vote for the Trustees. Let's hope the Akaka Bill does do what OHA has never been able to do. All native Hawaiians deserve.
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