Kennedy Stops Race-Based Election in Hawaii

Alexandria, Virginia, November 30, 2015 (Newswire.com) - Supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy has issued an emergency injunction to stop a race-based election in Hawaii, as per a request in a brief filed by the American Civil Rights Union.

“The government has been operating a brazenly racially based voter registration process,” the brief states.

Kennedy’s order, issued on Nov. 27, enjoins the state from counting ballots or determining winners until he or the court further rules. Submitted on behalf of the ACRU by the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), the brief in Akina, et al. v. State of Hawaii notes that this is the second time that Hawaii has conducted a racially exclusionary election.  The last time, appeals courts did not have time to review the law thoroughly before the election took place.  

“The election of delegates [to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs] had occurred and tens of thousands of Hawaiian residents were denied the right to vote,” the brief states. “This court must not let that happen again….”

Eventually, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Hawaii’s justifications for having racially exclusive rolls and elections and declared that such ancestry tests violated the 15th Amendment, which bans racial tests by governments to register to vote and participate in the political process.

The plaintiffs in this case, who are Hawaiian residents, are asking the Supreme Court to issue an injunction to halt the election until a full appellate review is conducted and thus prevent Hawaii from getting away with an unconstitutional voter registration test a second time.

“The Supreme Court’s language in Rice v. Cayetano (2000) is sweeping in scope and unforgiving to racial tests to register to vote,” said J. Christian Adams, ACRU Policy Board member and president of PILF. “The right to register to vote on a government-run registration roll without passing an ancestry test is a fundamental Constitutional right. Hawaii escaped full review of this policy once before. It should not happen twice.”

Policy Expert

J. Christian Adams is the President and General Counsel of the Public Interest Legal Foundation.   He served from 2005 to 2010 in the Voting Section at the United States Department of Justice. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Injustice: Exposing the Racial Agenda of the Obama Justice Department. He litigates election law cases throughout the United States and brought the first private party litigation resulting in the cleanup of corrupted voter rolls under the National Voter Registration Act of 1993.  He represented multiple presidential campaigns in election litigation.  He successfully litigated the landmark case of United States v. Ike Brown in the Southern District of Mississippi, the first case brought under the Voting Rights Act on behalf of a discriminated-against white minority in NoxubeeCounty.  Prior to his time at the Justice Department, he served as General Counsel to the South Carolina Secretary of State.  He also serves as legal editor at PJ Media and appears frequently on Fox News and has appeared at National Review, Breitbart, the Washington Examiner, American Spectator, Washington Times and other publications. He also serves on the Policy Board of the American Civil Rights Union.  He has a law degree from the University of South Carolina School of Law. He is a member of the South Carolina and Virginia Bars.

ABOUT AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS UNION

The ACRU publicly advances a constitutional understanding of Americans' essential rights and freedoms. It files amicus briefs in key civil rights cases and litigates to protect the integrity of our election process.

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