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Come November, voters will decide on more than half a million federal, state and local officeholders and ballot initiatives. Ninety-nine percent of these decisions will matter less than will the five civil rights initiatives that might be on the ballots in Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Missouri. If the initiatives qualify for those states' ballots, all probably will pass. But the initiatives must surmount ferocious opposition from defenders of racial preferences, such as the politicians who administer and benefit from Missouri's racial spoils system. The crux of the Missouri Civil Rights Initiative (MoCRI) would amend that state's constitution to say:...

The world gets more competitive every day, so why would California's education elites want to dumb down their public university admissions standards? The answer is to serve the modern liberal piety known as "diversity" while potentially thwarting the will of the voters. The University of California Board of Admissions is proposing to lower to 2.8 from 3.0 the minimum grade point average for admission to a UC school. That 3.0 GPA standard has been in place for 40 years. Students would also no longer be required to take the SAT exams that test for knowledge of specific subjects, such as...

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,...

SAN FRANCISCO -- A state appeals court has given San Francisco a chance to reinstate an affirmative action program for minority and female contractors, saying a history of discrimination may justify preferential treatment despite California's Proposition 209. A judge who struck down the 20-year-old program in 2004 failed to review San Francisco's claims that long-standing and pervasive discrimination by both city employees and contractors resulted in firms owned by minorities and women being illegally excluded from winning city business, the First District Court of Appeal ruled Wednesday. If San Francisco can prove those claims, it may be able to show...

TEN YEARS ago, California voters approved Proposition 209, an initiative that banned affirmative action in public institutions throughout the state. The state of Washington has since become the second state to take such drastic action (although voters in Michigan seem poised to approve an initiative modeled after Proposition 209 on Tuesday). California would have been better off by "mending" instead of "ending" affirmative action, along the lines of a strategy adopted by then-President Bill Clinton. "Affirmative action ... is a bridge to a society of more equal opportunity," we wrote on our pages years ago. Even a conservative U.S. Supreme...

Berkeley High School is considered one of the most diverse in the country, but for students reared in the city's public schools, a campus boasting ethnic richness is nothing new. Unlike any other Bay Area school district, Berkeley considers a student's race when assigning children to schools. The idea is that even though a given neighborhood may not be ethnically and economically diverse, the city's campuses will reflect Berkeley's population as a whole. But the integration plan came under attack Wednesday when a public-interest legal foundation sued the district for the second time in less than four years. Sacramento-based Pacific...

Spurred partly by campus and community concern over dwindling numbers of African American students, UCLA is moving toward a major shift in its admissions process, perhaps as early as this fall. The changes in admissions, pushed by acting Chancellor Norman Abrams and several faculty leaders, would be the most dramatic at UCLA in at least five years. They would move the Westwood campus toward a more "holistic" admissions model — much like UC Berkeley's — in which students' achievements are viewed in the context of their personal experiences.

SACRAMENTO -- A state agency won't use race anymore when awarding contracts. The California Department of Transportation made the decision because it could not show minorities suffered discrimination in contracting, Caltrans said. The department said it took the step early this week after a recent ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals set out that standard. Caltrans has had a goal of giving 10.5 percent of its federal contracting dollars to disadvantaged businesses. ...At stake is $5.1 billion for 1,400 transportation projects throughout California over the next five years. "Caltrans funds so many different projects around the state...

Ballot initiatives have been getting shot down like skeet lately in California, but that hasn't always been the case. This year marks the tenth anniversary of one that passed handily but needs to be revisited. In November 1996, California voters passed Proposition 209, the California Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI). The measure states: "The state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting." This simple, reasonable, language derives from the civil-rights struggles of the...

SAN CLEMENTE, Calif. - When Michael Winsten and his wife, Cheryl, moved here four years ago, they expected their young children eventually would attend the high school down the hill, about a 3 1/2-mile bike ride from their home. Since then, relentless growth in this Orange County community has forced a school district building boom, and the Winstens' five children will have take a bus to a new school farther away. The Winstens say the real reason for moving their children is to ensure there are enough white students at the new school. They are suing Capistrano Unified School District...

Whether or not you agreed with them, university presidents used to be dignified figures on the American scene. They often were distinguished scholars, capable of bringing their own brand of independent thinking to bear on the operation and reform of their institutions. Above all, they took seriously the university's mission to seek and transmit the Truth, and thereby to strengthen the free society that made such inquiry possible. But it has been a long time since Woodrow Wilson (at Princeton), Robert Hutchins (at Chicago) or James Bryant Conant (at Harvard) set the tone for American campuses. Over the past year,...

BERKELEY - A new UC Berkeley think tank will research whether Proposition 209, the state ballot measure that ended affirmative action at California universities, could be challenged successfully in court. Run by the Boalt Hall law school, the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity and Diversity will take on one of the most contentious issues in higher education: whether race should be used as a factor in college admissions. The institute, to be announced Monday, also will study a broad range of other subjects, including the upcoming reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act and civil rights in K-12...

California lawmakers improperly and unconstitutionally adopted legislation two years ago that violated the state's ban on race-based preferences, a Sacramento Superior Court judge ruled Thursday. Ward Connerly called the ruling by Superior Court Judge Thomas M. Cecil another "nail in the coffin of preferences" based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin. Connerly had argued in the suit that Assembly Bill 703, signed into law by Gov. Gray Davis, was an "end run" around Proposition 209, a 1996 initiative banning preferences in state hiring, contracting and education. "This is a happy day for me, personally, and for all of...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - A 2003 law intended to help minorities win government contracts and employment was struck down Thursday by a superior court judge because it conflicts with Proposition 209, which bans consideration of race and gender in public employment, education and contracting. Sacramento County Judge Thomas Cecil issued the ruling after Ward Connerly, the author of Proposition 209, filed suit shortly after the bill was signed into law by former Gov. Gray Davis in 2003. The law, AB 703, was intended to allow government agencies authority to only perform outreach in order to help minority or women-owned business gain...

End preferences, court tells SMUDPlan to help minority contractors is found at odds with Prop. 209. In a decision that could reverberate statewide, a state appeals court on Tuesday told the Sacramento Municipal Utility District that it must scrap a program giving financial breaks to some minority contractors. The ruling is the first to interpret a key exception to Proposition 209, the 1996 initiative that banned government affirmative action programs. SMUD had argued that because its own studies showed a past pattern of discrimination against some minority contractors, it was required under federal law to solve the problem by giving...

Bill may let UC consider race By Richard Clough DAILY BRUIN REPORTER rclough@media.ucla.edu In a move likely to re-ignite a recurring debate, the state Assembly passed a bill Wednesday which would allow public universities in California to consider race in their admissions processes. Assembly Bill 2387, which will be sent to the state Senate Education Committee by June 9, would allow the University of California and California State University to consider factors such as race and gender in undergraduate and graduate admissions as long as no preference is given based on those factors. The bill passed the state Assembly by...

May 25, 2004, 8:43 a.m. Blue Helmets vs. Prop. 209 A California judge uses a U.N. treaty to discriminate. By Lance T. Izumi & Sharon Browne Ever since Proposition 209, the anti-race-preference initiative, was passed by California voters in 1996, various state and local government agencies have sought a means to save race-based government programs. In a recent ruling, an Oakland judge purports to have found such a means in the form of a U.N. treaty that supposedly trumps Prop. 209....

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, March 26, 2004, CONTACT: Tim O’Brien 313.550.9000, SOUTHGATE, MIJUDGE REJECTS REQUEST TO HALT MICHIGAN CIVIL RIGHTS PETITION DRIVEIn a sharply worded opinion, Wayne County Circuit Judge Susan Borman, denied a request by two attorneys to halt the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative petition drive to amend the state constitution by prohibiting race and gender preferences by state and local government.Two attorneys brought the motion claiming that the circulation of the petitions should be barred because the effect of the amendment would be to undo the recent Grutter v. Bollinger decision by the US Supreme Court that permitted government...

    Unspun with AnnaZSeptember 18th, 2003 -- 10pmE/7pmP     with Special Guest Hostess Diotima!           Affirmative Distraction           with special guest   Attorney Sharon Matthew of Pacific Legal Foundation       CLICK HERE TO LISTEN LIVE             Because if the apathy don't get ya,the complacency will.             Brought to you by The FREE REPUBLIC NETWORK     New RadioFR website!     Click HERE for the LIVE chat room!     Click HERE for the RadioFR Archives!    ...

Commentary and news from Pacific Legal Foundation (www.pacificlegal.org) The PLF Sentry Vol. 3, No. 15 August 22, 2003DAVIS SIGNS ASSAULT ON PROPOSITION 209; PLF POISED TO POUNCEProposition 209 is the voter-passed amendment to the California Constitution which forbids state and local governments from playing favorites by race in public hiring, contracting and education. The latest in a long line of assaults on Prop. 209 by proponents of racial spoils is Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally's bill that would play inventive word games with key mandates in the initiative. The Dymally legislation, A.B. 703, would require that the words "discriminate" and "preference" be...

One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors." -- Plato I wonder why every employer and employee in the land must pay into the Social Security system, except for members of Congress, who can exempt themselves. I wonder why newly arrived immigrants can get right on Social Security, welfare and other social services. They haven't even paid into the system. I thought they needed responsible guarantors to immigrate? I wonder why no one is supposed to talk about fixing Social Security. Doesn't everyone know it's not a true...

Have you ever wondered why the people of California have such an appetite for the voter initiative process? Proposition 13 (reformed the property tax), “Three Strikes” (got criminals off the streets), Proposition 187 (prohibited public services for illegal immigrants), Proposition 209 (ended race preferences), and Proposition 227 (reformed bilingual education) are all high profile examples of actions taken by the people of California over the past 25 years. None of the above could clear even the policy committee in the house of origin of the bicameral California Legislature when legislation was introduced to enact these reforms, despite the fact that...

"The state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education or public contracting." This tribute to fairness and equality is now a part of the state Constitution. It was approved in 1996 by the voters of California, who wanted to end affirmative action, quotas, set-asides and other preference programs. The refusal of some state and local government officials to honor this mandate is now blocking implementation of the California Civil Rights Initiative, commonly known as Proposition...

California’s Quota Commandoes Are Still Winning Victories By Harold Johnson FrontPageMagazine.com | October 17, 2002 What a difference six years doesn’t make. As the November elections approached in 1996, a fierce fight raged over the "California Civil Rights Initiative" – Proposition 209 – a ballot initiative to forbid race preferences in state and local government. Six autumns later, the fight to implement Prop. 209's vision of fairness and equal treatment goes on. However, the battle has shifted to the courtroom, as the measure’s supporters try to get public officials to obey the law. In some parts of the Golden State...

SEVERAL LETTER WRITERS, reporters and columnists at The Examiner have taken Republicans to task for being "extremist" and "right wing." But a look at the facts about the Democrats and their false claim to the mantle of moderation reveals them to be more extreme and radical, and far more out of touch with the average Californian. Consider this: • The Democrats strongly opposed Proposition 209, the anti-affirmative action measure. It passed in a landslide that included the votes of many minorities. Republicans were more in touch with the California voter. • Demos strongly opposed Prop. 227, which opposed bilingual education...