HERE WE GO AGAIN - KAMEHAMEHA SCHOOLS SUED OVER ʻRACE-BASEDʻ ADMISSIONS
HawaiiNewsNow.com - October 21, 2025
Weeks after launching a website seeking plaintiffs, an anti-affirmative action group sued Kamehameha Schools Monday over its admissions policy that gives a preference to Native Hawaiians.
Students for Fair Admissions, which has led cases striking down affirmative action in the college admissions process on the mainland, said it represents two families — referred to as “Family A” and “Family B” —who want their non-Hawaiian children to go to Kamehameha.
In a written statement, the school’s trustees and CEO Jack Wong said they would vigorously defend the policy.
“The facts and the law are on our side, and we are confident that we will prevail,” Wong and the trustees said.
The suit alleges that the current admission policy violates the rights of any non-Hawaiian applicant to the school, that the policy is not a valid way to address educational disparities between Native Hawaiian children and those of other races, and that Kamehameha should not be granted any constitutional carve-out that would uphold its admission policy.
The legal challenge by Students for Fair Admissions is the latest attempt to strike down the nearly 140-year-old policy of accepting qualified Hawaiian children to the private school, which was established in the late 19th century through the estate of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop to educate Hawaiians.
The institution successfully defended its admission policy in a series of lawsuits in the early 2000s. The trustees and Wong promised to do so again.
The lawsuit makes similar arguments to the legal case filed in the early 2000s.
