PASADENA, Calif. — Supporters of Kamehameha Schools protested yesterday outside the office of a federal appeals court that struck down the exclusive school's Hawaiians-only admissions policy.

About 50 demonstrators waved Hawaiian flags and chanted, "I ku maumau," or "Stand together," as they walked by the Pasadena office of the 9th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals, event coordinator Miki Kim said.

In August, a three-judge panel in San Francisco ruled the private school's 117-yearold admissions policy was "unlawful race discrimination." The policy requires applicants to prove Hawaiian bloodlines.

"We are being raked over the coals in the courts under the idea that we're an equal nation, and we aren't an equal nation," said Kim, a 1976 Kamehameha Schools graduate who lives in Los Angeles.

Among those who attended the rally were members of the Downtown Los Angeles Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League.

The school, which was not involved with the march, is petitioning the 9th Circuit for a rehearing by the full court.

The case was brought by a non-Hawaiian student who was turned down for admission in 2003.