Rice v. Cayetano
| Rice v. Cayetano | |
|---|---|
| Argued October 6, 1999 Decided February 23, 2000 | |
| Full case name | Harold F. Rice, Petitioner v. Benjamin J. Cayetano, Governor of Hawaii |
| Citations | 528 U.S. 495 (more) 120 S. Ct. 1044; 145 L. Ed. 2d 1007; 2000 U.S. LEXIS 1538; 68 U.S.L.W. 4138; 2000 Cal. Daily Op. Service 1341; 2000 Daily Journal DAR 1881; 2000 Colo. J. C.A.R. 898; 13 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. S 105 |
| Case history | |
| Prior | Injunction denied, 941 F. Supp. 1529 (D. Haw. 1996); summary judgment granted for defendant, 963 F. Supp. 1547 (D. Haw. 1997); affirmed, 146 F.3d 1075 (9th Cir. 1998); cert. granted, 526 U.S. 1016 (1999). |
| Subsequent | Remanded, 208 F.3d 1102 (9th Cir. 2000). |
| Holding | |
| Hawaii's denial of the right to vote in OHA trustee elections based on ancestry violates the Fifteenth Amendment. | |
| Court membership | |
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| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Kennedy, joined by Rehnquist, O'Connor, Scalia, Thomas |
| Concurrence | Breyer (in result), joined by Souter |
| Dissent | Stevens, joined by Ginsburg (Part II) |
| Dissent | Ginsburg |
| Laws applied | |
| U.S. Const. amend. XV | |
Rice v. Cayetano, 528 U.S. 495 (2000), was a case filed in 1996 by Big Island rancher Harold "Freddy" Rice against the state of Hawaii and argued before the United States Supreme Court. In 2000, the Court ruled that the state could not restrict eligibility to vote in elections for the Board of Trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to persons of Native Hawaiian descent.
Rice was represented by the Gibson Dunn attorney (and future Solicitor General of the United States) Theodore B. Olson. John Roberts (who would later become the Chief Justice of the United States) argued for Ben Cayetano, the governor of Hawaii at the time. Deputy Solicitor General Edwin S. Kneedler represented the United States government as amicus curiae in support of the Hawaii law's constitutionality.
The February 2000 court ruling in Rice v. Cayetano encouraged Hawaiian sovereignty opponents to file a similar lawsuit, Arakaki v. State of Hawai‘i, months later. As the Rice case resulted in non-Hawaiians being allowed to vote in OHA elections, the Arakaki case resulted in non-Hawaiians being allowed to stand as candidates in OHA elections.