Posted on 08/26/2014 11:22:16 AM PDT by NYer
In its latest assault on the U.S. Constitution, the Obama administration is proposing to recognize so-called “Native” Hawaiians as an Indian tribe entitled to separate and become an independent sovereign and to “reestablish” a “government-to-government relationship between the United State and the Native Hawaiian community.”
Such an unconstitutional action would amount to authorizing secession for certain residents of Hawaii.
It would also implicitly authorize government-sanctioned, discriminatory conduct against any other residents who don’t meet the explicit ancestry and blood-quantum requirements to be considered a “Native.” This would balkanize Hawaii, dividing the islands into separate racial and ethnic enclaves, and undo “the political bargain through which Hawaii secured its admission into the Union.”
>>> Legal Memorandum: The Obama Administration’s Attempt to Balkanize Hawaii
At the end of June, the Department of the Interior issued an “Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking” that set out the administration’s plan, with the opportunity for the public to file comments ending on August 19. No doubt to its chagrin, the administration encountered strong opposition at a series of hearings the Interior Department held in Hawaii in June and July, with one official from the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs being loudly booed when she declared her support for the plan.
From a constitutional standpoint, the administration has no legal authority to implement its proposal. Only Congress, not the president, has the authority to recognize Indian tribes under Article I, Section 8. Congress has specifically refused to provide that authority. For more than a decade, former U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, and Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, tried unsuccessfully to convince Congress to pass the Native Hawaiian Recognition Act, which would have provided such recognition.
In fact, as recently as a year ago, the head of Indian Affairs at the Interior Department, Assistant Secretary Kevin K. Washburn, told a House subcommittee that the administration did not “have the authority to recognize Native Hawaiians.” Washburn told the subcommittee that “we would need legislation to be able to proceed down that road.” Yet, suddenly, the administration is proceeding down the very road that it admitted it lacks the authority to travel.
Hawaii’s own former attorney general, Michael Lilly, says that any effort to recognize Hawaiians as an Indian tribe is unconstitutional, because so-called Native Hawaiians don’t meet any of the political requirements necessary for such recognition. Hawaii went from being an independent kingdom to a territory to a state and four commissioners from the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights have told President Obama that neither Congress nor the president can “reconstitute a tribe or other sovereign entity that has ceased to exist as a polity in the past.” In other words, there is no Native Hawaiian government with which the administration can establish a government-to-government relationship because “it is an extinguished government, and therefore, no government at all.”
The Hawaiian state government already provides special benefits to Native Hawaiians, who are defined as “any descendant of not less than one-half part of the blood of races inhabiting the Hawaiian Islands previous to 1778.” As one commissioner has commented, this definition is similar to “the odious ‘one drop rule’ contained in the racial-segregation codes of the 19th and early 20th centuries.” The U.S. Supreme Court has called such ancestry definitions a proxy for race and held that they are discriminatory and a violation of the Fifteenth Amendment. In the past, the U.S. Justice Department has consistently taken the same position.
At worst, the Obama administration’s proposal is unconstitutional, and as a number of U.S. senators have told the administration, it is “at best offensive to the character of a country devoted to the advancement of all its citizens regardless of race.” The proposed rulemaking should be withdrawn and rescinded and the administration should stop engaging in unconstitutional behavior that is outside of its authority.
It makes you a native American, but not a Native American. /S
Isn't it funny that, in the supposed service of eliminating advantages held by one segment of society over another (e.g., "white privilege"), Obama and crew want to introduce or strengthen a host of new privileges? Aboriginal Hawaiian preferences would be one; racial/gender/who-knows-what-gender preferences are another; and there's always the old standby, affirmative action. Then there's union privileges -- it's almost impossible to fire a government employee for incompetence or malfeasance; usually they get retired with a great pension. The ultimate end game of all of this is racial and government privilege--are you part of a favored group.
This is a degenerate approach compared with equality before the law. Here we have inequality being written into the law.
In the 1800 s the new census takers did not separate those who were part Native American from those who were part black, so all were Mulatto s.
Perhaps Hawaii should be encouraged to secede. And Texas also.
They get one island,, not the Big iSland or oahu, the Japanese would be upset.
Send those Hawaiians to the reservations in Montana and see what they’re asking for.
“Eat yer government cheese and quit yer complaining.”
You are 1/2 right, the other half is so "the tribes" can also legalize pot since the State is so full of stoners now.
Think about it, it becomes the ultimate sin city destination, Gambling, Pot, Beaches, and could Hooker Legalization be not too far behind as well...
I’d gladly give it to them considering how ungrateful most “native” Hawaiian’s are for America.
They really think they’d be independent without our imperialism? If not us, then Japan, Russia, China.....same result.
Heap Big Banana seems to prefer “tribes” ruled by hereditary “chiefs” to nations led by politicians elected by their citizens...
Oh Man: The guy in that picture’s got AIDS.
He wants to break the country apart.
Well, there goes “Pearl”!!
I always figured they were both Japanese-Americans, but Akaka is actually part native Hawaiian and part Chinese.
No clue as to why Inouye would support a bill that could mean a major loss of influence for his own ethnic group.
Why not just let each citizen opt in to either the Red States of America or the Blue States of America, kind of like we do when we choose electricity providers.
Hawaii is a state where racism is not only tolerated but actively encouraged. There is a political class there that runs on Hawaiian superiority and they are very powerful.
Yeah, my group goes back 15,000 years or so plus we got inbred/outbred about 1609 with an English guy. That should make me native American. I’m just in favor of seceding the Grand Kenyan and sending his scrawny ass back where he belongs——with his phony paperwork.
I’d gladly give it to them considering how ungrateful most “native” Hawaiian’s are for America.
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Agree! We were there on vacation for 10 days in 1989. Spent a couple of days on Oahu and the rest on Maui.
I found the “natives” to be the most rude of any other place I’ve vacationed. They just want the tourist dollars. Sorta like Colorado in ski season.
Barack Obama has long been for Hawaiian secession.
Recall the election blowback that Sarah Palin got because of her husband’s supposed involvement with a similar movement in Alaska?
FUMSM
Montana (Bozeman area) has better snow and much nicer folks then Colorado.
Give it a try your next skiing adventure - and take in Yellowstone national Park in the winter.
Hard to beat!
Tips up!
Trade Hawaii for 2 trillion in debt and lose 2 Dem senators...? Might be a bargain!
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