Kahawaiolaa

In this appeal, we consider whether the exclusion of native Hawaiians from the Department of Interior’s regulations acknowledging the federally recognized status of Indian tribes comprises discrimination in violation of the Equal Protection component to the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause. We have jurisdiction to determine whether the regulations are unconstitutional, and we conclude that they do not violate the Fifth Amendment under rational basis scrutiny.

I

Despite the importance of the inquiry, the United States has struggled to find an adequate definition of an Indian tribe. There is no universally recognized legal definition of the phrase, and no single federal statute defining it for all purposes. Felix S. Cohen, Federal Indian Law 3 (1982). As a general matter, the Supreme Court has described a tribe as “a body of Indians of the same or similar race, united in a community under one leadership or government, and inhabiting a particular though sometimes ill-defined territory.” Montoya v. United States, 180 U.S. 261, 266 , 36 Ct.Cl. 577 , 21 S.Ct. 358 , 45 L.Ed. 521 (1901).

The significance of the question is immediately apparent from the text of the Indian Commerce…