Posted on 07/15/2005 2:31:19 PM PDT by Crackingham
As well-informed readers of Townhall know, the U.S. Senate is scheduled to begin debate soon on S. 147, the falsely named “Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act of 2005.” The proponents of this bill, some motivated by seemingly benign purposes and others by simple greed, argue that the legislation redresses ancient wrongs done to early Hawaiians by the United States. The bill purports to authorize the creation of an exclusively race-based government of so-called “native” Hawaiians to exercise sovereignty over native Hawaiians living anywhere in the United States. This “Native Hawaiian Government” supposedly could exempt these Hawaiians from whatever aspects of the United States Constitution and state authority it thought undesirable.
The United States Supreme Court ruled decisively that this approach is unconstitutional in Rice v. Cayetano (2000). Yet, the proponents of S. 147 believe they can avoid this ruling simply by passing a law that calls the descendants of so-called “aboriginal” Hawaiians an American Indian tribe. The bill would require the federal government to create a database of persons with one drop or more of “aboriginal” Hawaiian blood, organize elections for an “interim government” of this alleged “tribe,” and finally recognize the sovereignty and privileges and immunities (or lack thereof) that the new government establishes for its “tribal members.” Although Hawaii correctly argued in the Rice litigation that descendants of aboriginal Hawaiians are not an American Indian tribe, state officials have changed their minds—since that is the only way they can practice racial discrimination on behalf of a favored interest group. Hopefully, the United States Constitution is not so easily circumvented. $33,351 4:44PM Friday
Whether its sponsors are well meaning or not, a Hawaiian analogy to American Indian tribes does not work. It does not work for a host of constitutional reasons and it will not work if the principles of the Fourteenth Amendment are respected at all. Hawaiians were never an American Indian tribe, and cannot become one by congressional decree. When the first western missionaries arrived on the islands, Hawaii was ruled by a powerful king in a feudal monarchy, not unlike some in Eastern Europe and the Far East at the time. Congress simply cannot create an Indian tribe, as that term is understood in the Constitution, or “recognize” an Indian tribe that never existed. If it could somehow do so, there would be no end to racial separatist “nations” that Congress could carve out of the United States population and exempt from the United States Constitution. This cannot be.
S. 147 is unconstitutional for more reasons than could be explained in an op-ed (the June 22, 2005 paper by Senator Jon Kyl for the Republican Policy Committee , contains an excellent summary of both the bill’s policy problems and constitutional defects), but the bill’s disregard for the United States Constitution is surpassed by the profound negative consequences that would result even if it were constitutional. It is unfortunate that racial separatists and other opportunists have persuaded the Senate Leadership to take up the bill. And, it’s a cause for real concern that the number of Senators supporting the bill supposedly exceeds 50 (through purported logrolling and vote trading). Thus, it is high time for scholars and patriots, who thought that this bill—like its predecessors—would never go anywhere, to speak out about its fundamental defects.
This crap again. Anyone born in Hawaii is a native Hawaiian. If Michael Jackson had been born in Hawaii he is a native Hawaiian. Hawaiian is not a race, it is simply a location. Like Somoa.
I get so tired of this kind of PC junk!!
And if they pass this sh** then I'm moving to Hawaii so I can be excempt from the income tax amendment.
All this just to build a casino? :o)
You could be right and sell cheap cigarettes.
An outrage.
How the heck did I miss that! Good one!
I remember hearing once that the Federal definition of a "Native" was anyone who could trace their ancestry back to the Americas 500 years ago. That would mean an increasing number of white Spanish, English, and Dutch would soon be considered "Native American."
Does anyone know anything about this?
Hawaii should be a territory anyway. No need for it to become a state.
Not needed and is bullcaca.
Hawaii should be a state because without it there would have been no Hawaii 50. Book em Danno! Also no "Dog" The Bounty Hunter.
Celebrating segregation again. What's up with the Liberal 'RATS anyway? The "melting pot" is becoming a pressure cooker.
It is Samoa.
Hawaiians and Samoans are both Polynesian. Every Polynesian group considers themselves a race. Each speaks their own version of the Polynesian language. Both have traditional structures for self-government.
Samoans exercise their traditional self-government anywhere there is a large community of Samoans. The areas are split up into districts, the Churches nominate their pastors to the council of pastors, and the extended families select from the traditional nobility available to represent the families to the council.
The councils organize cultural events, form an informal court for cultural matters, and also represent the Samoans to the local government like a union organization.
The Hawaiians can do this on their own without passing special privilege laws. Of course, I've found that the native Hawaiian movement is racist and bigoted, and they refuse to emulate Samoans out of some kind of disgusting superiority complex.
BUMP!
At the rate we're going, the Sup Ct will discern a right of ethnic self-determination in the Constitution, or a right to secession, before the decade is out. The nation will be disintegrating, balkanizing, and left to the scavengers, if we don't restore the bindings of our historical culture. Too many rats are gnawing at them already.
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