Overview
- Students for Fair Admissions filed the case in U.S. District Court in Honolulu against the Trustees of the Estate of Bernice Pauahi Bishop, targeting Kamehameha Schools' admissions policy.
- The lawsuit claims the policy relies on race or ancestry in violation of civil-rights law and seeks a race-neutral process, with SFFA president Edward Blum saying the school should not bar children based on race.
- The complaint names no individual plaintiffs and instead asserts that SFFA has members who were harmed by the policy and members prepared to apply.
- SFFA cites the Supreme Court’s 2000 Rice v. Cayetano decision on ancestry as a stand-in for race and references prior Ninth Circuit litigation that ended in a later settlement reported as $7 million.
- Kamehameha Schools had not issued a new formal response, while supporters and local officials rallied at ʻIolani Palace criticizing the challenge, and the school remains a private, donor-funded system with high demand and an endowment reported above $15 billion.