(CNN) Brett Kavanaugh wrote that government programs targeting Native Hawaiians "as a group" is "of questionable validity under the Constitution" and would be "subject to strict scrutiny" in an email sent during his time in the Bush White House.

Kavanaugh was responding to upcoming testimony from a Treasury Department official regarding investment in "Indian Country."

"I think the testimony needs to make clear that any program targeting Native Hawaiians as a group is subject to strict scrutiny and of questionable validity under the Constitution," Kavanaugh wrote in 2002.

The email, marked "committee confidential," was released Thursday morning by the office of Hawaii Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono.