Arakaki v. State of Hawai'i

Arakaki v. State of Hawai'i, 314 F.3d 1091 (9th Cir. 2002),[1] was a lawsuit challenging the requirement that candidates for election to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs board of trustees be Native Hawaiians.

Arakaki v. State of Hawai'i
Court	United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Full case name	Earl F. Arakaki, Evelyn C. Arakaki, Patrick Barrett, Sandra P. Burgess, Edward U. Bugarin, Patricia A. Carroll, Robert M. Chapman, Brian Clarke, Kenneth R. Conklin, Michael Y. Garcia, Toby M. Kravet, Thurston Twigg-smith, and Jean Yokoyama v. State of Hawaii, Benjamin J. Cayetano, in His Official Capacity As the Governor of the State of Hawaii, Dwayne D. Yoshina, in His Official Capacity As Chief Election Officer of the State of Hawaii
Argued	May 6, 2002
Decided	December 31, 2002
Citation(s)	314 F.3d 1091
Case history
Prior history	No. 00-cv-514 (D. Haw.)
Court membership
Judge(s) sitting	J. Clifford Wallace, A. Wallace Tashima, Richard C. Tallman
Case opinions
Majority	Tashima, joined by Tallman
Concurrence	Wallace

In 2000, after being barred from applying for nomination papers in June because he was not of Hawaiian ancestry, Kenneth R. Conklin was one of 13 plaintiffs in a controversial lawsuit Arakaki v. State of Hawai'i challenging the requirement that candidates for election to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs board of trustees be Hawaiian. The suit, argued by attorneys H. William Burgess and co-counsel Patrick W. Hanifin, claimed the restriction violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, the Fifteenth Amendment, and the Voting Rights Act. In August, U.S. District Judge Helen Gillmor issued a judgment allowing non-Hawaiians to run for OHA trustee. Conklin then ran unsuccessfully for OHA trustee in November 2000, placing 4th out of 20 candidates for one "at large" seat. (The winner, Haunani Apoliona, took 58,264 votes or 15.7%, and Conklin took 18,115 votes or 4.9% - there were also 117,597 blank votes or 31.7%)