Judge upholds California's affirmative action ban

[The Northerner]

SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal judge on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit challenging California's voter-approved ban on affirmative action in public university admissions.

U.S. District Judge Samuel Conti ruled against the challenge to Proposition 209, which barred racial, ethnic or gender preferences in public education, employment and contracting.

The plaintiffs argued that the law violated the civil rights of black, Latino and Native American students whose numbers have been reduced at the University of California's most prestigious campuses, particularly UCLA and UC Berkeley, since the ban passed in 1996.

According to the lawsuit, black, Latino and Native American students make up about one-quarter of the freshmen enrolled at UC's nine undergraduate campuses even though they comprise nearly half of all public high school graduates.

But the judge sided with Ward Connelly and other affirmative-action opponents who sought the lawsuit's dismissal. In his ruling, Conti said the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals already rejected a similar legal challenge to California's affirmative-action ban.

Connelly, a former UC Regent and Sacramento businessman, called the ruling a "powerful victory for fundamental rights."

"Everyone is owed a full measure of equal treatment, including applicants to the UC system, and indeed all students," Connelly said in a statement. "None of us should be classified by race or sex, by government."

Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_16815920?nclick_check=1

[SoCalDem]

1. Ward Connerly is an ASS.n/t

[ananda]

2. Oh dear.

I thought CA courts were liberal and understood the need for
affirmative action.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

4. This is not new

This is only the most recent defeat for affirmative action in California. It is quite literally illegal for public state and local agencies there. Public colleges and universities have tried to work around it with limited success.

[xchrom]

3. May I live long enough to piss on ward connerly's grave. Nt