State high court to consider legality of S.F. affirmative action

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 8/22/7 | Bob Egelko

[SmithL]

SAN FRANCISCO -- The California Supreme Court took up its first affirmative action case in almost seven years today, agreeing to decide the legality of San Francisco's program that grant preferences for minority and female contractors.

The court granted a hearing on appeals by two companies that say the city ordinance violates Proposition 209, the 1996 initiative that outlawed race and sex preferences in public contracting, employment and education.

A Superior Court judge overturned the ordinance in 2004. But a state appeals court ruled in April that the city might be able to justify the preferential treatment, despite Prop. 209, if it could show that the program was needed to counteract a history of discrimination.

In that case, the appeals court said, Prop. 209 might be overridden by the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of equal protection of the laws.

San Francisco has had programs to increase minorities' and women's share of city contracts since 1984, and has faced continual legal challenges from white contractors. The current ordinance, passed in 2003, gives minority- and female-owned companies a 10 percent advantage in competitive bids.

It also requires contractors to hire a certain percentage of subcontracting firms that are not owned by white men, or to show that they have made a good-faith effort to meet those goals.

[ronnie raygun]

I guess qualifications in any of the trades is not a pre requisite. Another Liberal staple that will ultimately be the death of a great nation.