HONOLULU -- Since Congress arbitrarily decided that only Hawaiians with 50 percent Hawaiian blood should be entitled to homeland leases, the debate over blood quantum has been a problem in the Hawaiian community.

Now, legal experts say Hawaiians may be forced to face the issue again if the Native Hawaiian Recognition Bill, also known as the Akaka Bill, becomes law.

"It's kind of unseemly when you have Hawaiians going against Hawaiians," Office of Hawaiian Affairs attorney Robert Klein said.

A group of men with 50 percent Hawaiian blood on Monday told Judge Susan Mollway that the Office of Hawaiian Affairs should not spend money on Hawaiians with less Hawaiian in their ancestry.

The judge said she was inclined to reject the claim. However, that will not end the blood quantum issue.

OHA's attorney said a Native Hawaiian government established by the pending Akaka Bill will have to define its membership.

"That entity would have its rules and its rules will probably have a blood quantum," Klein said.

Many Hawaiians oppose any quantum.

"Because you are 1/64th or 1/124th that you don't get to apply, that you don't qualify that you aren't Hawaiian?" University of Hawaii Hawaiian Studies Director Jonathan Osorio said.

Even if most Hawaiians oppose a blood quantum they might be forced to accept it because under the Akaka Bill, the U.S. Department of interior must accept the Hawaiian entity's rules and it might demand a blood quantum similar to most Native American tribes.

"This is about the federal government saying what it is willing to surrender," Klein said.

"There is always a concern where you have Hawaiians divided artificially by blood quantum," Osorio said.

Klein and other supporters of the Akaka Bill point out that the legislation itself allows anyone with Hawaii blood to participate in the formation of the Hawaiian entity and Hawaiians will be the ones who decide if a new blood quantum is set.