Supreme Court justices to confer as early as Friday April 13 - please pule!

Aloha kakou,

Following is a message from Dee Jay Mailer, CEO of the Kamehameha Schools. She indicates that the Supreme Court justices will likely meet on Friday April 13 to decide whether or not to hear John Doe's petition this fall.

Please join me for times of personal and corporate pule between now and then. Together let's beseech Ke Akua to help the Supreme Court justices see the truth.

For those of you in SoCal, please meet me at Huntington Beach pier flagpole (just to the right of the pier), at 9am on Saturday April 7 so we can pule in advance of the Supreme Court justices' meeting in this case. E-mail me at Noelani@HawaiiansUnite.com for more information.

Together with you,
Noelani

----- Original Message -----
From: CEO Message
To: CEO Message
Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2007 3:53 PM
Subject: Supreme Court to Discuss Review of Doe v. KS in April
Aloha kakou! It was just a short while ago that I wrote to you, letting you know that John Doe was requesting a hearing with the Supreme Court and that we had filed our opposition to his request. As we predicted, he has filed his response to our opposition and a date has been set for the Supreme Court to consider whether or not to hear our case. According to our latest information, the Supreme Court may meet to consider this as early as Friday, April 13. If our case is discussed on April 13, the Court is likely to decide on whether to grant Doe’s appeal by Monday, April 16.

We have strongly asserted that this case does not warrant any further consideration. The Federal District Court in Honolulu found in our favor, as did a majority of the judges at the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. If the Supreme Court agrees with us, that this case does not warrant further review, then the Doe lawsuit will be pau. If, instead, the Supreme Court justices decide they do want to hear this case, it will mean several more months of legal filings and arguments, with a hearing before the Court as early as the Fall of this year. If the Court decides to hear our case, we are fully prepared to decisively argue for our rights to serve our Princess's express wishes.

It bears repeating - we have made very strong arguments against having the Supreme Court hear any further appeals from Doe’s attorneys. This case does not raise issues of national importance. There is simply no other school in the country like Kamehameha: founded by a Princess in her sovereign homeland, who bequeathed her private wealth to provide an educational remedy for the ongoing socioeconomic disadvantages suffered by her native people. Furthermore, this lawsuit involves a federal statute, enacted by Congress to protect freed slaves from being locked out of commerce. This is the same Congress that has repeatedly recognized and supported our mission. Thus we believe Congress never intended for this statute to stop our Schools from serving our people, according to our Princess's will. There is no other situation in the United States for which the court’s current ruling in this case establishes a precedent, and we believe that the justices will consider this as they decide which cases from across the entire nation they will review this Fall.

As confident as we may be in our ability to defend our admissions policy, we are aware that we do not defend alone. We know you stand with us and that we need the strength and guidance of a much higher power to resolve this matter with finality. Mahalo for your continuing prayers, care and support as we direct our thoughts and energy toward those who will make these important decisions. As always, you bolster our strength and stand as a strong symbol of our commitment to continue to serve our people in the way our founder wished.

I mua Kamehameha!

Dee Jay Mailer