Opinion: CA legislature's ACA 7 is just Prop 16 in sheep's clothes
Civil rights prof Gail Heriot helped pass 1996's Prop 209 (banning racially-motivated public job/education decisions), which SCC voters affirmed when rejecting affirmative action attempts in 2020. But at the time, SJ City Council voted unanimously—against most constituents—in favor of Prop 16. For Instapundit, Heriot warns against newly proposed ACA 7: It welcomes race-based discrimination as long as “research” gives the O.K.
In 2020, the California legislature attempted to strip the state constitution of these words: “The State shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting.” Yes, that’s right … our esteemed legislators didn’t like those words. They wanted to be able to discriminate.
The words had been put there in 1996 by Proposition 209 (a campaign I co-chaired). At the time it was a big deal. It made news around the world.
I also co-chaired the opposition to the repeal effort—known as Proposition 16—in 2020. And miracles of miracles, with the help of Instapundit readers, we won. The pro-16 forces outspent us something like 17 to 1, but we nevertheless defeated the repeal. And it wasn’t close. We beat the pants off ‘em.
But they just won’t stop … which ought to show you something. While Proposition hasn’t ended all state-sponsored race and sex discrimination in California, it ended a whole lot of it. That’s why progressive legislators want to get rid of it. It’s in their way.
Their new plan—ACA 7—will put on the ballot what purports to be a mere “exception” to Proposition 209. But the exception will swallow the rule. The governor will be able to authorize discrimination if there is “research” showing that such discrimination will “increase[e] the life expectancy of, improv[e] educational outcomes for, or lift[] out of poverty specific groups based on race … sex, [etc.]”
Anyone who understands a thing or two about “research” knows that you can find “research” that finds the moon is made of green cheese. But the “research” won’t even need to be fraudulent. If you pass a law that says only people from the “right races” can get state jobs or contracts, that will indeed “lift” them “out of poverty.” But it will do so by unfairly driving those of other races into poverty.
In essence, if ACA 7 is passed by the legislature and passes at election time, the State of California will be able to violate Proposition 209 whenever the governor d*mn well pleases. And that will happen a lot.
This article originally appeared in Instapundit. Read the whole thing here.
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