Attorneys for non-Hawaiian students now suing for admission to Kamehameha Schools are protesting a judge's order that the students' names be made public, saying that threats were made against the students, their families and their lawyers.

Attorney David Rosen yesterday said that news stories about U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry Kurren's ruling generated new threats and Rosen asked Kurren to reverse his decision. Rosen said callers to his office threatened physical harm to him and his clients.

He also said the news stories in The Advertiser and the Honolulu Star-Bulletin about Kurren's ruling generated online threats of harm to him and the students. The Advertiser has been subpoenaed to provide unpublished letters to the editor and online comments that were taken off The Advertiser's Web site.

Rosen said in an affidavit that he notified the FBI of a threatening phone call and e-mail message he received at his office.

The lawsuit, filed by four non-Hawaiian students in August, alleges that the schools' policy of admissions preference to Native Hawaiians violates federal civil rights law.

The suit closely followed similar claims filed in an earlier suit that Kamehameha Schools settled with a payment of $7 million to an unidentified Big Island student and parent.

Last month, Kurren granted a motion from Kamehameha lawyers that argued the identities of the plaintiffs in the new lawsuit should be made public. Kurren rejected arguments that that would put the plaintiffs at physical risk.

"The severity of the threatened harm and the reasonableness of plaintiffs' fears do not weigh in favor of anonymity," Kurren wrote. "At most, plaintiffs are vulnerable children who have a reasonable fear of social ostracization."