The battle to overturn racial neutrality in California’s government continues.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that a federal court will consider a challenge to Proposition 209, a voter-approved law that bars the government from granting preferences to or discriminating against individuals or groups based on race in education, employment, and contracting. And Governor Jerry Brown supports the challenge:
“Prop. 209 ‘imposes unique political burdens on minorities’ and violates the constitutional guarantee of equal protection, Brown’s lawyers from the attorney general’s office told the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, which will hear arguments Feb. 13.
“The suit was filed in 2010 by 46 minority students and an advocacy group. Brown was originally a defendant, but he has switched sides, joining the plaintiffs, who are seeking to allow consideration of race in admissions at the University of California. The suit does not challenge Prop. 209′s bans of race and gender as a consideration in public employee hiring practices and contracting, but a ruling striking down any part of the November 1996 ballot measure would make all of it vulnerable.”
Let it sink in for a moment: requiring certain minorities to compete with non-minorities violates the minorities’ equal protection. Readers, words have meaning.
Last year, Jerry Brown begrudgingly did the right thing by vetoing a measure that would have introduced preferences back into the University of California and California State University systems. He understands he must get the law overturned. Any policy that allows racial preferences violates state law.
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