“Ken Conklin Image”
The U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on the
Constitution will hold an oversight hearing entitled:
“Can Congress Create A Race-Based Government? — The
Constitutionality of H.R.309/S.147″.
This hearing will be held on Tuesday, July 19, 2004,
at 2 p.m. in Room 2141 of the Rayburn House Office
Building.
Constitutional law expert Bruce Fein previously
challenged Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle, or Hawaii
Attorney General Mark Bennett, to a public debate on
the Akaka bill. The challenge to debate is available
at https://tinyurl.com/avn48
The governor and attorney general refused to comment
on that invitation, and “blew it off.”
Now that debate will happen, as Bruce Fein, Mark
Bennett, and H. William Burgess appear before a
Congressional subcommittee on Tuesday July 19.
This marks the first time that any opponent of the
Akaka bill has ever been given a chance to testify in
person before Congress in Washington, D.C. All
previous hearings before the Senate Committee on
Indian Affairs from 2000 to 2005 were “rigged” and
featured only supporters of the bill, such as Gov.
Lingle, Haunani Apoliona (head of OHA), and Micah Kane
(head of the Department of Hawaiian Homelands).
The only previous time opponents of the Akaka bill
were allowed to testify before members of Congress was
in August 2000 at the Blaisdell in Honolulu, when a
so-called “joint committee” hearing was held with only
four members of Congress and one Delegate present:
Hawaii Senators Akaka (sponsor of the bill) and
Inouye (cosponsor), Representatives Abercrombie
(sponsor of the bill) and Mink (cosponsor), and Samoa
territorial Delegate Eni Faleomavaega (cosponsor).
A published report on the hearing, which noted that testimony was about 9-1 in opposition and was often accompanied by angry outbursts
from the audience, can be seen at: https://tinyurl.com/44kev
This debate will take place on the 4th anniversary of
a letter sent on July 19, 2001, from House Judiciary
Committee Chairman Sensenbrenner to Speaker Hastert,
demanding that the House leadership either kill the
Akaka bill or refer the bill to his committee for
hearings on its (un)constitutionality. That letter can
be seen at: https://tinyurl.com/49p55
Regarding Bruce Fein:
See 3 published articles by Bruce Fein opposing the
Akaka bill that were inserted into the Congressional
Record by Senator Kyl (R, AZ) on March 17, 2005 as
Senator Kyl reaffirmed his opposition to the bill
https://tinyurl.com/65waz
“Hawaii Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand” (Essay by
Constitutional lawyer Bruce Fein, as printed In the
Congressional Record of June 14, 15, and 16 of 2005 by
unanimous consent, by request of Senator Kyl)
https://tinyurl.com/ajz9s
Regarding Hawaii Attorney General Mark Bennett: He
published an article in ”’Hawaii Reporter”’ defending the
constitutionality of the Akaka bill, which produced a
published response from Bruce Fein. Those two articles
are among the four gathered at:
https://tinyurl.com/5oupd
To see this article in its entirety as well as the testimony for Honolulu attorney H. William Burgess on Tuesday, July 19 which he will present before the Subcommittee on the Constitution, go to https://tinyurl.com/c3kg9 Burgess