The Lingle administration will argue before the U.S. Supreme Court that Native Hawaiians do not have an ownership claim to land that belonged to the Hawaiian government prior to its overthrow in 1893.

News of the legal brief filed by state Attorney General Mark Bennett on Thursday in the state's case against the Office of Hawaiian Affairs did not sit well with Native Hawaiians gathered at Central Union Church yesterday for a swearing-in and investiture of OHA trustees.

"It's a pretty immoral position for the governor to take," said Bill Meheula, an attorney representing OHA in the case.

At issue are 1.2 million acres of ceded lands once owned by the Hawaiian monarchy which were taken by the provisional Hawaiian government following the overthrow of the monarchy. Those lands were then handed over to the U.S. government when Hawai'i became a U.S. territory, and finally the state of Hawai'i in 1959.

In 1993, the U.S. Congress approved an apology to Native Hawaiians for the federal government's role in the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawai'i. The apology, signed into law by President Clinton, called for Congress to support reconciliation between the nation and Native Hawaiians.

"Now the governor is telling all Hawaiians, 'You don't have a claim to the ceded lands even though the overthrow was illegal,' " Meheula said.

In an e-mailed statement last night, Gov. Linda Lingle's office said, among other things, that:

The Hawai'i Supreme Court erred as a matter of law in finding that the 1993 Congressional Apology resolution either changed the legal landscape in any way, clouded the state's title to the state's public trust lands, or forbade the state from selling or transferring those lands to fulfill any one or more of the purposes set out in the 1959 Hawaii Admission Act;

And that as a matter of law, the state's title to its lands is unchallengeable in the courts.
The state previously had argued that it has the authority to manage the ceded lands, but did not argue for ownership rights, as Bennett's new brief does, Meheula said.

"They are seeking a ruling from the United States Supreme Court that Native Hawaiians have no claim to the ceded lands," he said.