Senate Hawaiian Government Bill Unconstitutional?

Edwin Feulner, President of the Heritage Foundation, has written an interesting article on the Senate's "Akaka Bill," which would create a separate race-based Hawaiian nation.

Feulner makes the argument that Congress cannot create a nation which is exempt from parts of the Constitution. The bill would authorize the Native Hawaiian government to violate the 14th Amendment and discriminate on the basis of race.

It's troubling how many in the United States currently seek to re-carve and divide our established nation, whether it's native Hawaiians seeking to legally separate from the United States or "reconquista" proponents advocating the return of the southwest United States to Mexico. I wouldn't have taken these movements seriously just a couple of years ago, but the noise is starting to reach an alarming pitch. Even if they don't succeed -- the Hawaiian bill apparently has a good chance of passage -- the mere advocacy of these ideas creates a racially divisive atmosphere.