Affirmative Action Ban Upheld By California Supreme Court

SAN FRANCISCO — California's high court on Monday upheld the state's 14-year-old law barring preferential treatment of women and minorities in public school admissions, government hiring and contracting.

In a 6-1 ruling, the state Supreme Court rejected arguments from the city of San Francisco and Attorney General Jerry Brown that the law, known as Proposition 209, violates federal equality protections.

Opponents of the ban say it creates barriers for minorities and women that don't exist for other groups, such as veterans seeking preference.

The ruling written by Justice Kathryn Werdegar came in response to lawsuits filed by white contractors challenging San Francisco's affirmative action program, which was suspended in 2003.

"As the court recognized, Proposition 209 is a civil rights measure that protects everyone, regardless of background," said Sharon Browne, a lawyer for the Pacific Legal Foundation, which represented the contractors. "Under Proposition 209, no one can be victimized by unfair government policies that discriminate or grant preferences based on sex or skin color."

If San Francisco wants to resurrect the program, the Supreme Court said it must show compelling evidence the city "purposefully or intentionally discriminated against" minority and women contractors and that such a law was the only way to fix the problem.

Justice Carlos Moreno dissented, writing that it's unfair to explicitly single out minorities and women while other special groups continue to enjoy preferential treatment in school admissions and elsewhere.

"In the wake of Proposition 209, veterans, the economically disadvantaged, the physically disabled, children of alumni, in-state residents, etc., all may continue to seek, obtain, and benefit from preferential legislation as before," Moreno wrote. "The same is no longer true for those seeking race- and sex-conscious legislation."

Another challenge to Proposition 209 on different legal grounds is pending after being filed in federal court earlier this year.

The pro-affirmative action known as By Any Means Necessary is seeking to invalidate the law by arguing that minority students and their parents are unfairly restricted by state admission policies that can't take into account race or gender but does consider other factors.

(This version CORRECTS Corrects author of opinion to Justice Kathryn Werdegar. Updates with quotes, details)

Comments

[BlackRabbit]

02:55 PM on 08/05/2010

The greatest victims of racial preferences in universities are not not caucasions but Asian Americans.

Historically Asian Americans have not been politically active, but one day they may call these institutions to account for their policies.

[Konrad Klean]

03:48 PM on 08/04/2010

I am dismayed that this is such a contentious topic in a country supposedly built on meritocracy. If AA programs are coming under scrutiny because employers and colleges are navigating them to obtain additional grant funding at the expense of better qualified prospects; then indeed they discriminate.

This country is suffering from a political correctness on the scale of paranoia which has so far yielded such amusing cases as the firing of Don Imus, the reverse discrimination of New Haven Firefighters, and Jesse Jackson offering to castrate Obama for "down talking" to African Americans.

The above considered we are now looking at minority students being pulled in by educational institutions eager to cash in on AA government grants. Students who write wonderful reviews on college review websites in which they criticize schools such as Swathmore and Vassar for being "Fine if you are white".

If that isn't racism then I don't know what is. Perhaps two students at my junior college whom I witnessed being harassed for "trying to be white" and one girl harassed for dating an African American...by other African Americans.

P.S. I'm a F.O.B. immigrant who arrived with no knowledge of English and with three family members. I've had to work relentlessly to get into college, sustain a 3.8+ GPA...but an admission board may just shove me in the circular file because being from Europe - I'm "white"

[Alwayspissedoffatsomeone]

10:27 PM on 08/04/2010

Thank you.......

[bkrider9]

11:07 AM on 08/05/2010

I didn't realize slavery was a meritocracy.

[abelenkpe]

03:44 PM on 08/03/2010

Sad.
The comments section is even more pathetic.

[BlackRabbit]

04:15 PM on 08/05/2010

What I find sad and pathetic is that those who insist that people be treated equally without regard to their race are themselves often -- indeed inevitably -- called racist. It's a clear reflection of massive moral confusion in America, and demonstrates how race issues often result in "remedies" that are horribly misguided and destructive.

[edwcorey]

03:42 PM on 08/03/2010

Ward Connerly, the self-hating African American, is behind this.

"The Detroit-based pro-affirmative action group By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) claimed that [Ward] Connerly, as CEO of Connerly & Associates, Inc., his Sacramento-based consulting firm, benefited financially from affirmative action programs in contracting,] a claim also made by the San Francisco Chronicle. California requires state agencies to award 15 percent of all contracts to minority classified firms. Minority-owned firms that were not classified as such were not eligible for the set-asides. This created an incentive for organizations to register their ownership by race, in order to compete with similarly owned firms." Connerly's another Republican hypocrite. For more on him: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Ward_Connerly

[hrpmap]

03:30 PM on 08/03/2010

I just heard on the news behind me that identity theives are targeting kids. They are getting SS# of small kids and running up debts that won't be discovered for years. The child won't discover it until they reach the age of starting their own financial life, and by then they will be ruined. the problem will have the potential according to the newscast to completely crash the economy if some waty to stop isn't found. Aren't illegal aliens the main users of stolen IDs? The government figures say so.

[hrpmap]

03:34 PM on 08/03/2010

Sorry! Wrong post. By

[abelenkpe]

03:40 PM on 08/03/2010

No criminals are the main users of stolen IDs.

[bmike]

03:11 PM on 08/03/2010

Who benefit from Affirmative action.It was suppose to help blacks assimilate but it never happened.In my city most goes to the white female in a program designed for blacks. It may sound good but that's as far as it goes.

[Alwayspissedoffatsomeone]

10:34 PM on 08/04/2010

"It was suppose to help blacks assimilate but it never happened." -- bmike

Who said it was designed to help blacks? Whom ever is behind AA is doing anything BUT helping blacks. It's saying to the world that blacks can't reach the higher levels of achievements on their own. How racist is that? Blacks have succeeded to great heights on their own and don't need any special treatment.

[Bostontru2u]

02:22 PM on 08/03/2010

American people need to hear the truth Huffington Post. What was wrong with my post?

[cgeorgan]

02:10 PM on 08/03/2010

I'm sick and tired of qualified folks getting special consideration during the admissions process.

[Occam123]

02:33 PM on 08/03/2010

You mean barely qualified, of course.

[cgeorgan]

03:20 PM on 08/03/2010

;-)

[Comtesse Gigi]

05:43 PM on 08/03/2010

Are you even aware of how an affirmative action program works? Of course not because you wouldn't have made such an idiotic comment.

[corwin]

11:15 PM on 08/03/2010

CG,
I am aware how an AA action works. It comes from being on the admission committee of a med school.We try very hard to find certain minorities who ahc=ve even a smal chance of graduating,accept thm and offer early start status with tutoring.A large portion (half? ) don't pass.Many that do are tenuous.and,yes we do pass over much more qualified foks for the politically favored. Sorry to inject knowledge here.

[cgeorgan]

08:54 AM on 08/04/2010

GG -

I think "corwin" summed it up for me. That was my basic understanding of the program.

[Occam123]

01:12 PM on 08/03/2010

News from the world of chess.
From now on, In interest of affirmative action,--- black moves first.

[Occam123]

02:40 PM on 08/03/2010

U.S. Association for Advancement of Black Chess Pieces demands these changes :

1.In interest of affirmative action the black pieces must be assured 60% winning ratio against white.
2. NO CASTLING for whites
3. White PAWN PROMOTION is unfair
4. Any black pawn that gets to the fourth rank, must be promoted to Queen, Duke, or Reverend.

[edwcorey]

03:55 PM on 08/03/2010

Black people were supposedly were incapable of winning the heavyweight boxing championship of the world and were unable to prove it until Jack Johnson ridiculed them. Since they finally let him in, the number of white heavyweight champs can be counted on one hand. Blacks were considered inferior to whites on the baseball diamond until Jackie Robinson was given "affirmative action." You morons have no idea what affirmative action is about. It was mandated by the courts because white people were unwilling to desegregate government accommodations like schools even though blacks paid taxes. It was tantamount to blacks paying the same fares as whites on buses, but having to sit in the back and to yield seats to whites when the white section was full. Or black farmers getting raw deals from the USDA so that they'd lose their farms. It's so easy to feel superior when the state creates laws in your favor, but when, in moral rectitude the state tries to even the playing field, you KKKers cry foul.

[bkrider9]

06:50 PM on 08/03/2010

My friend, you need to check yourself into the nearest Racism Clinic, and quick. They'll take you even if you don't have insurance. Otherwise it's a 302 for you.

[supertimewaste]

01:05 PM on 08/03/2010

scenario:

college X accepts 3 white B students--then comes a black B student and a white A student--college X accepts the black B student and not the white A student--all so called fair and reasonable people blame affirmative action and says it should be banned

*shrug*

[Geogravee]

10:57 AM on 08/03/2010

Affirmative Action has and is detroying the our ability to compete internationally with the brightest and the best. Every country that has AA has only gone way-DOWN economically. Race based social and economic policies are unjust and detrimental to national interests. In the end we all stand to lose.

Secondly the best held secret is the abuse of AA. What was originally intended for American Blacks from the American slave experience has become a racial instrument for ALL BLACKS irrespective of where they come from. In fact Caribbean and Black Africans are the greatest beneficiaries of AA in America (as ex and current colonies should they not take their case for an AA to the British, Spanish, French and Dutch governments?). But because the Black leadership in USA needs more bodies to increase political clout and justify bigger budgets, this blatant ABUSE is never revealed. The same applies for Latinos. What was originally intended for Chicanos and P.Ricans is now available to anyone with a Latino/Spanish name. Even people from Spain have taken advantage of our AA. Meanwhile the poor rural Blacks of Mississippi remain as they were before AA was introduced.

This blatant ABUSE of AA must stop and our spiral downwards prevented.

[boyoboy]

12:22 PM on 08/03/2010

Actually, the primary beneficiaries of AA are women. Playing up that whites should fear black pretty well, huh?

[V-day]

01:01 PM on 08/03/2010

Actually White women and Asians so says CNN Money.

[bobell]

10:55 AM on 08/03/2010

why dont our politicians also participate in affirmative action? any white male running against a female or a minority should spot them 10 pts. or the politician who has more campaign funds should spot the other 10 pts.

[gray375]

10:45 AM on 08/03/2010

the conservative mantra: White makes right!

[BlairCase]

10:38 AM on 08/03/2010

“Whites from families with incomes of less than $10,000 had a mean SAT score of 993. This is 129 points higher than the national mean for all blacks.
• Whites from families with incomes below $10,000 had a mean SAT test score that was 61 points higher than blacks whose families had incomes of between $80,000 and $100,000.
• Blacks from families with incomes of more than $100,000 had a mean SAT score that was 85 points below the mean score for whites from all income levels, 139 points below the mean score of whites from families at the same income level, and 10 points below the average score of white students from families whose income was less than $10,000.”
Source: The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education
http://www.jbhe.com/features/49_college_admissions-test.html

[robsreports]

01:06 PM on 08/03/2010

Not very good information. You're trying to say that blacks at any income level score less than whites. Is this because white are more intelligent? What is the real reason they score less?

[Blues02]

02:20 PM on 08/03/2010

Yeah because the SATs have not been shown to be socially or ethnically biased...

[PolicyWonkette]

09:11 AM on 08/03/2010

What many people fail to understand is that fairness is a very complicated concept. If you have a student who gets all A's except for one A-, and that student has a lot of disadvantages like working after school or taking care of sisters and brothers or parents who didn't finish high school -- and another student with all A's with a lot of advantages, then who has more merit? It's not cut and dried as some would have us believe.

When we add in the reality that some groups face redlining or discrimination that prevents them from achieving the same levels of DOCUMENTED success -- that may or may not reflect qualifications or merit -- the issue gets even more mirky.

Best, most qualified is exactly the point. Determining who that is -- that's where things get messy. Affirmative action may not be the answer. But ignoring the realities of individual experience and social inequity only perpetuates the historical unfairness we're trying to correct.

[Supersteel]

09:22 AM on 08/03/2010

If you're hiring a firefighter, all that matters is whether he is the best for the job, regardless of whether or not he faced obstacles or not.

[PolicyWonkette]

09:26 AM on 08/03/2010

Firefighting isn't the only profession I'm talking about. And if I understand firefighting correctly, there's a test that EVERYONE has to pass. Regardless of demographic characteristics.

[PolicyWonkette]

09:26 AM on 08/03/2010

And I'm not only talking about professions -- I'm also talking about education.

[BlairCase]

09:44 AM on 08/03/2010

There are far more white students from lower-income families than there are minority students from lower-income famlies. Beside, affirmative action benefits tend to go to the children of upper- and middile-class families. The reason college admission officers oppose a shift from race-based preference to income-based preferences is that they know low-income non-Hispanic white and Asian students outscore middle- and upper-income Hispanic and African American students.

[PolicyWonkette]

09:48 AM on 08/03/2010

Well, there are more white students than black students in general. I'm not sure what your point is.

Affirmative action is widely misunderstood. The people who are hurt most by affirmative action are asian students, who routinely outperform EVERYONE. This is why Prop 209 was introduced in California.