Cite as: 528 U. S. 495 (2000)
Stevens, J., dissenting
eral Government's trust relationship with a once sovereign indigenous people. This Court has held more than once that the federal power to pass laws fulfilling the federal trust relationship with the Indians may be delegated to the States. Most significant is our opinion in Washington v. Confederated Bands and Tribes of Yakima Nation, 439 U. S. 463, 500-501 (1979), in which we upheld against a Fourteenth Amendment challenge a state law assuming jurisdiction over Indian tribes within a State. While we recognized that States generally do not have the same special relationship with Indians that the Federal Government has, we concluded that because the state law was enacted "in response to a federal measure" intended to achieve the result accomplished by the challenged state law, the state law itself need only " 'rationally further the purpose identified by the State.' " Id., at 500 (quoting Massachusetts Bd. of Retirement v. Murgia, 427 U. S. 307, 314 (1976) (per curiam)).
The state statutory and constitutional scheme here was without question intended to implement the express desires of the Federal Government. The Admissions Act in § 4 mandated that the provisions of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act "shall be adopted," with its multiple provisions expressly benefiting native Hawaiians and not others. 73 Stat. 5. More, the Admissions Act required that the proceeds from the lands granted to the State "shall be held by said State as a public trust for . . . the betterment of the conditions of native Hawaiians," and that those proceeds "shall be managed and disposed of . . . in such manner as the constitution and laws of said State may provide, and their use for any other object shall constitute a breach of trust for which suit may be brought by the United States." § 5, id., at 6. The terms of the trust were clear, as was the discretion granted to the State to administer the trust as the State's laws "may provide." And Congress continues to fund OHA on the understanding that it is thereby furthering the federal trust obligation.
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