CA: Court strikes down 'special' status law for minorities

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 government contracts, according to the bill's author Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally, D-Compton.

Attorney Paul Beard from the Pacific Legal Foundation, who represented Connerly, said the measure "squarely conflicted" with Proposition 209.

The government can't pass a law violating the clear meaning of the Constitution. Constitutional Law 101 for liberals.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

BRAVO! Please, please do understand how glad I am that this was struck down -- Merv Dymally had [additionally]introduced UN language into the bill.

I reference for your perusal, Ward's column at Frontpage mag: excerpting...

But, wait, there is more. AB 703 further provides that the term “racial discrimination, for purposes of implementing Proposition 209 shall be the definition contained in paragraph 1 of Article 2 of Part I of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

In a 1960s United Nations treaty, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination defined “racial discrimination,” in the paragraph referenced by A.B. 703, by excluding "special measures taken for the sole purpose of advancement of certain racial or ethnic groups requiring such protection" to enjoy equal rights and "fundamental freedoms." In effect, the definition creates a sort of international affirmative action concept by saying that as long as the government is trying to advance the interests of “certain racial or ethnic groups,” such action does not constitute “racial discrimination.” Pretty clever, huh?

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