Editorial: Hirono raises Hawaiian issues

It’s not news that most U.S. Senate Democrats oppose President Donald Trump’s nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh, while Senate Republicans appear to be mostly united in favor.

Hawaii’s Democratic U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono refused even to meet with Kavanaugh. So it’s no surprise that Hirono challenged Kavanaugh at his confirmation hearing Thursday. What got our attention was the issue she raised: the status of Native Hawaiians.

Hirono quoted from a previously confidential 2002 email in which Kavanaugh said that any “program targeting Native Hawaiians as a group is subject to strict scrutiny and of questionable validity under the Constitution.”

Hirono and Native Hawaiian leaders like Moses Haia, executive director of the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp., warn that such views held by a Supreme Court justice could lead to the end of agencies like the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, as well as other programs that benefit Native Hawaiians exclusively. But Hirono, mindful that Republicans hold the upper hand — albeit by a razor-thin majority of 51 votes in the 100-member chamber — went further.

“Your view is that Native Hawaiians don’t deserve protections as indigenous people under the Constitution,” she told Kavanaugh, “and your argument raises a serious question about how you would rule on the constitutionality of programs benefiting Alaska natives.

“I think that my colleagues from Alaska should be deeply troubled by your views.”

Her Alaska colleagues are U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, both Republicans. Their votes will be crucial in deciding if Kavanaugh will sit on the Supreme Court.