Free Republic

Mervyn M. Dymally, the Trinidad-born former teacher whose ground-breaking if sometimes-controversial political career spanned more than four decades and included a stint as California's only black lieutenant governor, has died. He was 86.

Members of the two-house legislative committee working on the state budget – especially its dominant Democrats – have spent much of the week lamenting that they don't have enough money to satisfy all demands, including their own. "We're starving our education system," Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, complained during the three days of talking about K-12 and higher education support. "There's just not enough money." Leno's comment, echoed by other budget conferees, didn't prevent the committee from appropriating $8.7 million to Charles Drew University for another year, however – money originally given to the private Southern California medical school to...

SACRAMENTO -- A veteran black lawmaker says an investigation into his practice of giving replica Assembly badges to friends and donors is racially motivated and called the Democrat leading the inquiry "the most racial legislator" he has known. Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally, D-Compton, made the statement about Assemblyman Hector De La Torre, D-South Gate, Thursday in an e-mailed response to a capital news service. "Assemblyman De La Torre is the most racial legislator I have encountered in over 40 years," Dymally wrote in the e-mail to CTNS television service. The service sent a transcript of its e-mail interview to its subscribers...

Did you know that in California, child molesters and rapists are a protected class? It's true. Not only are California landlords banned from using the state's Megan's Law database to decline renting their properties to sex offenders, they're not even allowed to warn other tenants that these paroled criminals are now their neighbors. If they do the first, they can be fined $25,000 for housing discrimination. But if they don't do the second, they can be sued for failing to protect tenants against a known danger. Landlords are caught between a rock, a hard place and the California State Assembly's...

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...

<p>Ward Connerly filed suit against state officials Tuesday, claiming a newly signed law violates California's constitutional ban on race-based preferences.</p> <p>Connerly contends that AB 703 is an "end run" around Proposition 209, passed by voters in 1996 to prohibit preferences in state hiring, contracting and education.</p>

August 28, 2003FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASECONTACT: Diane Schachterle (916) 444-2278or ds@racialprivacy.org CONNERLY AND NGUYEN CHASTISE LEGISLATORS FOR UNCIVIL DISCOURSEYesterday, the California Legislature convened a "hearing" to consider Proposition 54. As predicted, the hearing was nothing more than a sideshow orchestrated to allow the opponents of Proposition 54 to showcase their irresponsible fearmongering charges against the initiative. That is precisely why the chair of the American Civil Rights Coalition, Ward Connerly, refused to legitimize such an event by attending.Connerly had this to say about Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally's demeaning treatment of Kevin Nguyen, Proposition 54 proponent: "Kevin is a man of unparalleled dignity...

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...

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...