Earlier this year I blogged about the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration, and Immigration Rights By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) filing a lawsuit challenging Proposition 209, approved by 54 percent of California voters in 1996. The law bars the state from granting preferences to or discriminating against individuals or groups based on race in government employment, contracting, and education.
BAMN contends, in so many words, that certain racial minorities have a constitutional right to preferential treatment. Among other things, BAMN said Prop. 209 “promised a ‘color-blind’ Constitution. But this was and is a lie…”
The law’s purpose was to create colorblind government policy, not to guarantee equality of outcome. Defying common sense, BAMN compared Prop. 209 to Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), which held that states were permitted to enact laws that separated the races, as long as segregated facilities were “equal.” Plessy permitted racial discrimination. In contrast, Prop. 209 bars the government from such actions.
But why quibble?
The Pacific Legal Foundation (PLE) has issued a call to defend Prop. 209. PLE seeks to intervene in the federal lawsuit.
“Committed supporters with historical ties to Prop. 209 need to be part of this lawsuit,” said PLF lead attorney Sharon Browne. “They must be allowed to intervene because the voters who passed Prop. 209 deserve to be represented, and Prop. 209′s guarantee of equal rights and equal opportunities must be defended credibly and to the max.”
PLE notes that named defendant Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who signed a government contracting racial quota bill last year, has moved to be dismissed from the suit.
“The governor and the regents are trying to backpedal out of defending Prop. 209,” Browne said. “And Attorney General Jerry Brown has already tried to sabotage Prop. 209 by sending a brief to the state Supreme Court calling it unconstitutional.”
The American Civil Rights Institute‘s (ACRI) Ward Connerly added: “Every individual in this country – including every student and every university applicant – deserves a full measure of equal treatment, not categorization by race or sex. This is the mandate of Prop. 209, and 14 years after its enactment it is time to move forward and fully embrace that goal.”
(Photo: ACRI’s Jennifer Gratz of Gratz v. Bollinger hounded by BAMN protesters)
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