WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday again did not decide whether it would accept the legal challenge against the Kamehameha Schools' admissions policy.

The case, along with others awaiting Supreme Court action, has been rescheduled for a conference Friday. A decision about whether the court accepts the case won't be known until Monday at the earliest.

There is no time limit on when the court must decide whether to take the case, and the court did not mention the schools' case in its list of orders issued April 16, the first date a ruling could have come down.

A decision against taking the case would let stand an earlier 8-7 ruling from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in favor of the Kamehameha Schools and its 120-year-old admissions policy that effectively excludes non-Hawaiians.

If the high court takes the case, it could set the stage for one of the most significant court actions in years involving Native Hawaiians. A ruling could come as early as summer 2008.

The case involves an unnamed, non-Hawaiian teenager and his mother who filed a lawsuit contending the private, nonprofit school system's admissions policy violates federal civil rights law.

Kamehameha Schools, the largest private landowner in the state, was established in 1887 under the will of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop. It serves nearly 5,000 of the more than 70,000 Native Hawaiian schoolchildren at the flagship Kapalama Heights campus and in schools on Maui and the Big Island.

Reach Dennis Camire at dcamire@gns.gannett.com.