Kamehameha Schools paid plaintiff to settle case

Today the stories on the Kamehameha Schools case settlement are in the print versions of Honolulu's dailies.

The Advertiser reports that "Kamehameha Schools paid to settle the most serious legal threat yet to its Hawaiians-first admissions policy, legal experts believe..." and "legal observers believe [the settlement] had to include payment to John Doe for him to drop the lawsuit." There are statements to the settlement from KS and other members of the community, including a video of KS CEO Dee Jay Mailer addressing an assembly of students. Plus background on the history of the school's admission policy, and reactions from around the islands. The editorial says "in a practical sense, the settlement solidifies the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, which favored the pro-Hawaiian policy. That means the bar to a future challenge has been raised so high as to make such a challenge unlikely in the short term. [...] So the status quo at the school seems fairly well insulated for now." But then goes on to suggest other ways that the school can protect itself from challenges, including support for the Akaka bill and other alternatives in case the bill does not pass.

Star-Bulletin story cites Honolulu attorney H. William Burgess, "an opponent of programs for native Hawaiians who filed a brief in support of the plaintiff," as saying that "he feels the settlement opens the door for other students to bring lawsuits against Kamehameha since there was likely a big payoff in this case." Of course the reaction from OHA and the governor is to use fear of more challenges to call for passage of the Akaka Bill. On that subject, in this Star-Bulletin story, supporters use the KS settlement to emphasize the need for the bill, and note that it is still not known whether there are 60 votes in the senate to overcome a filibuster against the bill. Plus more community reactions. Their editorial says the settlement "has given [the school] a reprieve but makes it vulnerable to similar lawsuits in the future."

Update 5/16: At Poinography, Doug White posts about the settlement, and considers what various possible outcomes for the Akaka bill would mean for KS and Hawaiian programs in general."I’m not very confident that the Akaka Bill is the salvation that it is implied to be."

And in David Shapiro's column he calls it a "smart move" and notes that "After the Doe v. Kamehameha settlement and U.S. District Judge Susan Mollway's dismissal last month of a civil rights lawsuit against the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, it's the first time Hawaiian assets haven't been under imminent legal threat since before the Supreme Court's 2000 Rice v. Cayetano ruling that overturned Hawaiians-only OHA elections." And re the Akaka bill, he says "the removal of immediate legal perils eases pressure for a quick resolution." In his blog post, Shapiro says, "the decision by the anonymous plaintiff in Doe v. Kamehameha to take the money and run rather than fight for the supposed principle tends to support Hawaiian claims that many of these legal attacks on their native assets are more about greed than principle."

Posted: Tue - May 15, 2007 at 07:45 AM

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Kamehameha Schools paid plaintiff to settle case

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