Bad News For OMAS
[Via Hit & Run]
The 9th Circuit ruled against a Hawaiian school’s preference toward ethnic Hawaiians.
A 117-year-old policy of admitting only Native Hawaiians to the exclusive Kamehameha Schools amounts to unlawful racial discrimination, a federal appeals court has ruled.
Overturning a lower court, a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit of Appeals in San Francisco ruled 2-1 Tuesday that the practice at the private school violates federal civil rights law even though the institution receives no federal funding….
Read the whole H&R post for a discussion of the principles involved.
There is no functional difference between the OMAS classes at University of Oregon and this Hawaiian policy. However, the UO does receive federal money whereas the Kamehameha Schools do not: Meaning, I think, that the case against the preferential OMAS classes could hold up in the 9th circuit even if the Kamehameha decision is overturned by a full hearing or by SCOTUS. Dan probably has smarter things to say about this.
