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Pacific Legal Foundation Challenges Hawaii’s 50% Blood-Quantum Rule

6/4/2026

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Summary

Story summary

The Pacific Legal Foundation sued in Honolulu federal court, challenging the Hawaiian Homes Act’s 50 % Native Hawaiian blood-quantum rule.
The program provides 99-year leases for $1 a year to roughly 29,000 waitlisted applicants, and Governor Josh Green pledged a vigorous defense.
Plaintiffs claim the rule is an unconstitutional ancestry-based classification and say the case could reach the Ninth Circuit and Supreme Court; Interior and Hawaiian Home Lands departments declined comment.

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Story summary

The Pacific Legal Foundation sued in Honolulu federal court, challenging the Hawaiian Homes Act’s 50 % Native Hawaiian blood-quantum rule.
The program provides 99-year leases for $1 a year to roughly 29,000 waitlisted applicants, and Governor Josh Green pledged a vigorous defense.
Plaintiffs claim the rule is an unconstitutional ancestry-based classification and say the case could reach the Ninth Circuit and Supreme Court; Interior and Hawaiian Home Lands departments declined comment.