HONOLULU

A wealthy private school created exclusively for Hawaii’s indigenous people may be forced to admit non-Hawaiians if it loses a legal challenge.

Fifteen judges on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments today in San Francisco over whether the Kamehameha Schools can continue to limit enrollment to Native Hawaiians.

The case is an important test of racial preference programs in school admissions.

While the courts have generally ruled against favoritism in education based on race, the Kamehameha case is different in that the school was founded based on the will of a Hawaiian princess and doesn’t receive federal funding.

“Her whole intent was to provide a means for educating her people so they could compete in a society that was changing so quickly,” says Kekoa Paulsen, a spokesman for Kamehameha Schools. “We are providing a remedy for a ... people in their own homeland who are suffering.”

Hawaii was an independent kingdom until the United States backed the overthrow of the country’s leaders in 1893. It eventually became a U.S. territory and was made a state in 1959.

A three-judge panel of the circuit court in California initially ruled against Kamehameha’s admissions policy with a 2-1 vote in August. But the court announced in February it would reconsider the school’s 118-year-old policy.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of an anonymous White student who was denied admission to the school in 2003 and claimed he was discriminated against because he didn’t have Hawaiian blood.

“We’ve had a lot of conflict, including the Civil War, about treating people differently based on their race. I think we’re mostly past that, but unfortunately Kamehameha wants to go back to an era of privilege for citizens depending on what race you are,” says Eric Grant, a Sacramento, Calif., attorney representing the boy, who recently graduated from a public school.

Kamehameha Schools was established under the 1883 will of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop as part of a trust now worth $6.8 billion. Part of the school’s mission is to counteract historical disadvantages Hawaiians face in employment, education and society.