Author: Chance Weldon
On Saturday, Governor Brown vetoed SB 185, a bill to authorize and encourage the University of California and California State University to consider race, ethnicity and gender in student admissions.
The veto comes on the heels of ??pressure from Pacific Legal Foundation and a barrage of bad press resulting from a recent protest at the University of California, Berkeley.
On September 22, 2011, PLF sent a letter to Governor Brown urging him to veto the bill, pointing out that by allowing the use of race and gender as a factor in admissions, SB 185 would blatantly violate article 1, Section 31 of the California Constitution (Proposition 209) and therefore, likely subject the state to costly litigation.
Apparently, our urging did not fall on deaf ears. Brown, a longtime supporter of race-based affirmative action programs and an opponent of Proposition 209, cited fear of litigation as a key reason for vetoing SB 185 on Saturday, claiming that “Signing this bill is unlikely to impact how Proposition 209 is ultimately interpreted by the courts; it will just encourage the 209 advocates to file more costly and confusing lawsuits.” You can see the full veto message here.