Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 16, Number 12, 1 December 1999 — Hawaiians Online [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Hawaiians Online

8y Paula Durbin ANY0NE WITH access to the Internet also has access to one of Hawai'i's hottest web sites about legal and political issues facing Hawaiians. Since its launching on Sept. 22, the I web site www.NativeHawaiians.com has I received more than 62,000 hits, according I to the user profile generated just as Ka Wai I Ola was going to press. I The site was activated two weeks before I the Supreme Court heard arguments in Rice I vs. Cayetano Oct. 6. "The purpose was to I provide all of the related material frōm the I Office of Hawaiian Affairs' legal represenI tatives and OHA's staff regarding the case I as well as the peripheral issues that surround it," said Ryan Mielke, 0HA's Public I Information Officer, who oversaw the creation of the website. Among the information that ean be accessed by logging on to www.NativeHawaiians.com are the briefs of the two parties, Harold "Freddy" Rice and the State ofHawai'i, and the dozen or so amicus curiae, or "friend of the court," briefs filed in support of both sides. "People need to know that this site is objective," Mielke added. "This site provides not only information about OHA's position on Rice vs. Cayetano, but also provides information on the Rice side of the issue. From that standpoint, people ean become extremely informed about the case, they ean underJ

A few clicks of the mouse get lnternet users access to extensive information on Rice vs. Cayetano and peripheral issues affecting the Hawaiian people through the muhiple links offered on www. Native Hawaiians.com.

stand its dynamics, they ean understand the _ history of Hawaiians as well as something about Mr. Rice." Because of the number of amiei, or friends, either filing briefs or joining in them, Rice vx. Cayetano is considered the best-briefed case of the Supreme Court's current term. Urging an outcome consistent with petitioner Rice's challenge to the eonstitutionality of the limitation on participation in 0HA's elections to Hawaiians, are the Campaign for a Color-Blind America, Americans Against Discrimination, the United States Justice Foundation, the Pacifie Legal Foundation, the Center for Equal Opportunity, the New York Civil Rights Coalition and the Hou Hawaiians who support an election either restricted to Hawaiians with at least 50 percent blood quantum or open to all Hawai'i voters. Offering a rationale for an outcome upholding the OHA election as now structured are the United States Solicitor General, seven states, the Territory of Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, the Alaskan Native Federation, the National Congress of the American Indians, Hawai'i's Congressional Delegation, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and 13 other Hawaiian agencies or organizations. "After Rice vi. Cayetano has been decided, the entire site will revert to 0HA's main site, www.0HA.org," said Mielke. "We will keep it on the net as long as the case is unresolved and people are hitting the site." A decision in Rice vs. Cayetano is expected sometime before May. ■

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