Hillwatch: Hawaii

Because the world doesn’t have enough casinos – tomorrow the  House will be considering H.R. 505:  the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act of 2007.  The bill is a plan to give native Hawaiians "Indian tribe" status in order to preserve a lot of very nice government perks that would otherwise be unconstitutional.

The 2000 Supreme Court decision in  Rice v. Cayetano indicated that the preferential federal benefits the indigenous Hawaiian population enjoys run contrary to the 15th Amendment’s protection against racial discrimination.

The bad parts of this bill include, but are by no means limited to the following:

• The definition of “Native Hawaiian” is very ambiguous.
• Congress does not have the constitutional power to create “tribes.”
• Native Hawaiians are a racial group, not a tribe united by a political governing body in the traditional definition.
• The bill sets a terrible precedent for racial preferences.
• And most troubling, 67% of Hawaii residents oppose the bill.

To sum up, it is basically a power grab by a small minority who envision themselves to be the future rulers of their island kingdom.

Luckily, despite the backing of people who should know better, the RSC is on the case and will be fighting the plan.