For many years now, the state of Hawaii has authorized its "Office of Hawaiian Affairs" (OHA) to disburse substantial sums of money -- derived in part from general tax revenue -- exclusively for the benefit of people who trace their ancestry to the pre-1778 inhabitants of the Hawaiian Islands. Hawaii has defined that qualifying ancestry by reference to its citizens' racial "blood quantum." And Hawaii has prohibited anyone without the requisite blood quantum from voting in statewide elections for the OHA board of trustees. It's been the only undisguisedly racial voting qualification any state has dared have on its books since the Fifteenth Amendment was enacted in 1870.
And now Hawaii's gonna have to knock it off. Last Wednesday the Supreme Court invalidated the state's Hawaiians-only voting restriction. Writing for a 7-2 majority in Rice v. Cayetano, Justice Anthony Kennedy summarily rejected the notion -- advanced by Hawaii and endorsed by the Clinton Justice Department -- that "exceptions" to the Fifteenth Amendment might allow such a racist scheme. There are no exceptions to the Fifteenth Amendment, Kennedy made plain. Its mandate is "explicit and comprehensive" and Hawaii's violation of that mandate has been "neither subtle nor indirect." End of story.
Almost, that is. Two things are notable about the Rice decision, both of which suggest that the issues it raises will remain with us like a pox for years to come.
First of all, Rice makes clear that there are two sitting justices of the United States Supreme Court -- the dissenters here, John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg -- who think it is sometimes okay for a state to restrict its ballots to people who can certify that they carry the chromosomes of a preferred race. Which is a disgrace and an embarrassment. And should be enough to remind us that it really does matter who nominates judges to the bench. The president we elect this year may nominate as many as three Supreme Court justices -- and thus fashion a new majority.
Also, alas, we should remain conscious of the fact that even the right president, nominating the right judges, is no guarantee that our highest laws will be obeyed. Within hours of the Rice decision, public officials in Honolulu were "reassuring" reporters that only the state's voting scheme had been struck down. In other words, Hawaii's race-specific spending programs -- none of which was challenged in Rice, and all of which violate the Fourteenth Amendment -- will continue unabated. Bottom line: Where race is concerned, we live in a country where you've got to sue, over and over and over again, to get the government to obey the Constitution.