United States Ninth Circuit

The exclusion of native Hawaiians from the Department of Interior's regulations acknowledging the federally recognized status of Indian tribes is not discrimination in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fifth Amendment.

Appellate Information

• Argued 11/07/2003
• Decided 10/27/2004
• Published 10/27/2004

Judges

• THOMAS, Circuit Judge:, Before: BROWNING, REINHARDT, and THOMAS, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Walter R. Schoettle and Emmett E. Lee Loy, Honolulu, HI, for the appellants.


• For Appellees:
  
• Elizabeth A. Peterson, Ellen J. Durkee, Environment & Natural Resources Division, Jeffery Bossert Clark, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Thomas L. Sansonetti, Assistant Attorney General, Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.;  R. Michael Burke, Assistant United States Attorney and Edward H. Kubo, Jr., United States Attorney, Honolulu, HI, for the appellee.