Native Hawaiians (Hawaiian: kanaka `oiwi, kanaka maoli, and Hawai`i maoli) are the aboriginal Polynesian people of the Hawaiian Islands or their descendants. Native Hawaiians trace their ancestry back to the original Polynesian settlers of Hawaii. According to the U.S. Census Bureau report for 2000, there are 401,000 people who identified themselves as being "Native Hawaiian" alone or in combination with one or more other races or Pacific Islander groups. 141,000 people identified themselves as being "Native Hawaiian" alone.

Another important outgrowth of the 1978 Hawai`i State Constitutional Convention was the establishment of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, more popularly known as OHA. Delegates that included future Hawai`i political stars Benjamin J. Cayetano, John D. Waihee III, and Jeremy Harris enacted measures intended to address injustices toward native Hawaiians since the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawai`i in 1893. OHA was established as a trust, administered with a mandate to better the conditions of both native Hawaiians and the Hawaiian community in general. OHA was given control over certain public lands, and continues to expand its land-holdings to this day (most recently with Waimea Valley, previously Waimea Falls Park).  Besides purchases since its inception, the lands initially given to OHA were originally crown lands of the Kingdom of Hawai`i used to pay the expenses of the monarchy (later held by the Provisional Government following the fall of the monarchy in 1893). Upon the declaration of the Republic of Hawai`i, they were officially designated as public lands. They were ceded to federal control with the establishment of the Territory of Hawai`i in 1898, and finally returned to the State of Hawai`i as public lands in 1959.  OHA is a semi-autonomous government body administered by a nine-member board of trustees, elected by the people of the State of Hawai`i through popular suffrage. Originally, trustees and the people eligible to vote for trustees were restricted to native Hawaiians. Rice v. Cayetano--suing the state to allow non-Hawaiians to sit on the board of trustees, and for non-Hawaiians to be allowed to vote in trustee elections--reached the United States Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of Rice on February 23, 2000, forcing OHA to open its elections to all residents of the State of Hawai`i, regardless of ethnicity. Answer this question using a quote from the following article:

did anything important happen?
Rice v. Cayetano--suing the state to allow non-Hawaiians to sit on the board of trustees,