HONOLULU -- The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that Kamehameha Schools' admission policy of Hawaiians only is unconstitutional.

The ruling is a victory for a non-Hawaiian student who had sought admission to the school for the last four years. The boy's attorney said the ruling means the student can enroll as a 12th-grader when classes begin in a couple of weeks.

A three-judge panel overturned the decision by U.S. District Judge Alan Kay in November 2003.

Kay ruled that the private school may continue to deny admission to non-Hawaiian students because of its unique and historical circumstances. Kay emphasized that Kamehameha receives no federal funding and because of that, the private school isn't held up to the same scrutiny as public schools.

"We didn't ask for any groundbreaking legal ruling. We asked that the regular civil rights laws and the rules against discrimination on the basis of race be applied to the school and to our client and that's what the panel decision gave us," plaintiff's attorney, Eric Grant, said.

The three judges split 2-1. The two majority judges pointed out that the will of Bernice Pauahi Bishop did not say Hawaiians only. Kamehameha Schools didn't dispute that its policy does discriminate based on race.

"This decision is not good for Hawaii, it is not good for Native Hawaiians, it is not good for Hawaii. That's the fundamental position that we believe in. We believe because it is right, that we believe that we are going to win. And we're going to fight and we're going to go down this road and do whatever it takes," Kamehameha Schools Trustee Nainoa Thompson said. "We as trustees honor the will. We protect the trust and we fulfill the mission of the school. My feelings are, yes it is a day when we should be angry. But, it's also a day when we've got to be collected. We've got to be calm. It's a day when we've got to be deliberate."

Grant is the attorney for an unnamed non-Hawaiian who wants to go to Kamehameha. He has argued that the federal courts have never approved a policy that categorically excludes on the basis of race.

Monday's decision sparked anger in the Native Hawaiian community.

"I'm devastated and angry that the us courts continue to support the overthrow of our Hawaiian kingdom. The overthrow of our indigenous rights the overthrow of our aina (land)," said Vicky Takamine, of the Ilio`ulaokalani Coalition.

"There are only two kinds of Hawaiians that live in Hawaii: the ones who like Hawaiians and the ones who don't like Hawaiians. Good Hawaiians will never try to steal from the Hawaiian people by applying to Kamehameha Schools and to take a place of a Hawaiian child who needs education. The non-Hawaiians who are bad and against us, we ask them to please leave our country," University of Hawaii professor Lilikala Kame`eleihiwa said.

Kamehameha Schools was set up by the trust of Bernice Pauahi Bishop and was started in 1887.

The judges agreed that Kamehameha Schools could be considered an affirmative action program designed to redress old wrongs, but that that still didn't justify race discrimination.

On another key issue, whether Congress supported Kamehameha's policy, the two majority judges felt many indirect congressional decisions had not exempted Hawaiians for special treatment. The dissenting judge, Susan Graber, felt that in at least one clear instance Congress had exempted Kamehameha Schools from the civil rights laws.

The school's next step could be to appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.