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The Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, Pub.L. No. 67-34, 42 Stat. 108 (1921) (“Commission Act”), designated approximately 200,000 acres as “Hawaiian home lands” and created the Hawaiian Homes Commission to manage them. The Commission was authorized to lease small parcels to native Hawaiians for 99 years at nominal rates for agricultural and homestead use. Section 4 of the Hawaii Admission Act, Pub.L. No. 86-3, 73 Stat. 4 (1959) (“Admission Act”), provided, “as a compact with the Umted States,” that the Commission Act would be “adopted as a provision of the Constitution of [Hawaii], ... subject to amendment or repeal only with the consent of the Umted States.” Section 5(b) of the Admission Act transferred title to the home lands to the State of Hawaii. Section 5(f) provided that these lands would “be held by said State as a public trust” for specified purposes, and “their use for any other object shall constitute a breach of trust for which suit may be brought by the Umted States.”

*336 With the approval of the Commission, several native Hawaiian lessees of home lands (“the lessee defendants”) entered into “third party agreements” permitting agricultural use of their land by persons…