The Supreme Court invalidated a long-standing Hawaii law authorizing a quasi-governmental "Office of Hawaiian Affairs" to disburse public funds to people solely on the basis of whether they could trace their ancestry to the pre-1778 inhabitants of the Hawaiian Islands. Hawaiians without the requisite "blood quantum" were not allowed to vote in statewide elections for the OHA board of trustees.

Oddly, the Clinton Justice Department had sided with Hawaii's losing argument: that some exceptions to the Fifteenth Amendment might allow ballot restrictions based on race. Following the vote, Hawaii officials reassured reporters that only the state's voting scheme had been struck down. The ruling did not affect the state's race-based spending programs, none of which were challenged in this case.

[Ed.: Congress later voted to circumvent the court's ruling.]

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