As the Akaka bill gains more national exposure, powerful voices are getting involved.

In a coup for the bill's supporters, Viet Dinh, a former assistant attorney general at the Justice Department under President Bush, has written a paper arguing that Congress has both the moral and legal authority to enact the bill.

Dinh, an architect of the USA Patriot Act after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, wrote that the Constitution gives Congress the power to legislate regarding Indian tribes, and that power extends to Native Hawaiians.

"The answer to both questions is yes, especially given the moral and legal obligations the United States acquired for overthrowing the then-sovereign kingdom of Hawai'i in 1893," Dinh wrote.