| Congressman Faleomavaega today announced his disappointment
and very serious concerns with the public announcement of the U.S. Supreme
Court’s decision issued today on Rice vs. Cayetano, which states
essentially that Mr. Harold Rice’s constitutional rights, under the Fifteenth
Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, has been violated since he was prohibited,
under certain provisions of the Hawaii State Constitution and State law,
to vote for the officers of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.
Faleomavaega said, ”This is truly a sad day for our Native Hawaiian
community. There are also serious implications for the Native American
Indians, Native Alaskans and other indigenous peoples who are supposedly
under the protection and trust authority of the U.S. Congress, as specifically
mandated under the Territorial and plenary clauses of the Federal Constitution.”
Faleomavaega further added, ”Having read both the majority and dissenting
opinions of this case, I find it most troubling for the majority members
of the Supreme Court to simply ignore the 200 years of history and events
that have completely transformed the fate and sad legacy our own country
has provided for the Native Hawaiian people. What our country did, by our
own admission through a Congressional resolution in which we apologized
to the Native Hawaiian people for the illegal and unlawful takeover of
their duly established sovereign government - - - and now by the stroke
of a pen, the Native Hawaiians are to forget all that has happened? This
is absurd, and just simply not right.” |
![[106th Congress]](/faleomavaega/press/press_2000/images/106.jpg)
