Posted on 08/26/2014 11:22:16 AM PDT by NYer
In its latest assault on the U.S. Constitution, the Obama administration is proposing to recognize so-called “Native” Hawaiians as an Indian tribe entitled to separate and become an independent sovereign and to “reestablish” a “government-to-government relationship between the United State and the Native Hawaiian community.”
Such an unconstitutional action would amount to authorizing secession for certain residents of Hawaii.
It would also implicitly authorize government-sanctioned, discriminatory conduct against any other residents who don’t meet the explicit ancestry and blood-quantum requirements to be considered a “Native.” This would balkanize Hawaii, dividing the islands into separate racial and ethnic enclaves, and undo “the political bargain through which Hawaii secured its admission into the Union.”
>>> Legal Memorandum: The Obama Administration’s Attempt to Balkanize Hawaii
At the end of June, the Department of the Interior issued an “Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking” that set out the administration’s plan, with the opportunity for the public to file comments ending on August 19. No doubt to its chagrin, the administration encountered strong opposition at a series of hearings the Interior Department held in Hawaii in June and July, with one official from the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs being loudly booed when she declared her support for the plan.
From a constitutional standpoint, the administration has no legal authority to implement its proposal. Only Congress, not the president, has the authority to recognize Indian tribes under Article I, Section 8. Congress has specifically refused to provide that authority. For more than a decade, former U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, and Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, tried unsuccessfully to convince Congress to pass the Native Hawaiian Recognition Act, which would have provided such recognition.
In fact, as recently as a year ago, the head of Indian Affairs at the Interior Department, Assistant Secretary Kevin K. Washburn, told a House subcommittee that the administration did not “have the authority to recognize Native Hawaiians.” Washburn told the subcommittee that “we would need legislation to be able to proceed down that road.” Yet, suddenly, the administration is proceeding down the very road that it admitted it lacks the authority to travel.
Hawaii’s own former attorney general, Michael Lilly, says that any effort to recognize Hawaiians as an Indian tribe is unconstitutional, because so-called Native Hawaiians don’t meet any of the political requirements necessary for such recognition. Hawaii went from being an independent kingdom to a territory to a state and four commissioners from the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights have told President Obama that neither Congress nor the president can “reconstitute a tribe or other sovereign entity that has ceased to exist as a polity in the past.” In other words, there is no Native Hawaiian government with which the administration can establish a government-to-government relationship because “it is an extinguished government, and therefore, no government at all.”
The Hawaiian state government already provides special benefits to Native Hawaiians, who are defined as “any descendant of not less than one-half part of the blood of races inhabiting the Hawaiian Islands previous to 1778.” As one commissioner has commented, this definition is similar to “the odious ‘one drop rule’ contained in the racial-segregation codes of the 19th and early 20th centuries.” The U.S. Supreme Court has called such ancestry definitions a proxy for race and held that they are discriminatory and a violation of the Fifteenth Amendment. In the past, the U.S. Justice Department has consistently taken the same position.
At worst, the Obama administration’s proposal is unconstitutional, and as a number of U.S. senators have told the administration, it is “at best offensive to the character of a country devoted to the advancement of all its citizens regardless of race.” The proposed rulemaking should be withdrawn and rescinded and the administration should stop engaging in unconstitutional behavior that is outside of its authority.
I was born here - does that make me a native American?
Perhaps this is doable if you give them the entire state, and give up the 2 Democrat Senators at the same time.
This is about getting casino gambling into Hawaii, that’s all.
Trust me ; any attempts to form a Hawaiian take-over nation here will be most strongly resisted by the true American residents , haole and local , who make up the super majority . As in most cases , the sovereigntyists are made of a mouthy super minority , so most people are not worried . However , that said , some are getting ready for any expediency also .
China would love to take Hawaii.
it is also racist
Humm, if those “born” there become an separate nation, would that remove him from office immediately. If so, I support it.
Excellent article by von Spakovsky.
Another example where 0bama thinks he doan need no stinkin Congress.
This type article is the best way to stop 0bama’s unconstitutional antics, shine light on them.
"Follow the money."
[ China would love to take Hawaii. ]
I wish china would instead take a large chunk of the middle east.... They cetainly would have the stomach to deal with the savages that live there....
(sarcastic)
Or, a certain birth certificate?
Perhaps this is doable if you give them the entire state, and give up the 2 Democrat Senators at the same time.
Hmmm....
Maybe make Jefferson in Nothern California it’s own state at the same time and no need to change the flag...
* I was born here - does that make me a native American? *
That was my question too.
We go back to at least the 1700’s, evidence for my family might even go back to the 1600’s. 1700’s on the other side.
Surely, I should be granted special status.
Let’s say anyone who was born here and their families have been here for 100 years legally get to make our own nation so that we don’t have to follow the absurd unconstitutional rules made up since early 2009.
I AM A NATIVE AMERICAN!
Millions of us are. Let’s have our own country and the Dems and the illegals can have the worst parts of the inner cities for their country. Sounds fair to me.
Let's lose Hawaii outright. Two less Democrat Senators and fewer Democrat Congresspeople.
Hell, lets work on California and New York, too!
Any progress on original peoples recognition for the White Guys That Like Freedom tribe?
You and Obama who was also born (sic) in Hawaii ;-)
Same here. I’m officially seceding. Welcome to Thorneland!
I am going to say that when someone with a clipboard asks me my nationality or race.
What about the native Texans? And the Cajuns? Let’s give them back their ancestral lands. Of course it means the US loses a lot of its oil wealth...
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