{"id":1489352,"date":"2022-05-24T07:59:54","date_gmt":"2022-05-24T11:59:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1489352"},"modified":"2022-05-24T08:00:02","modified_gmt":"2022-05-24T12:00:02","slug":"californias-blatantly-unconstitutional-woke-quotas-for-corporate-boards-struck-down-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/californias-blatantly-unconstitutional-woke-quotas-for-corporate-boards-struck-down-again\/","title":{"rendered":"California\u2019s Blatantly Unconstitutional Woke Quotas For Corporate Boards Struck Down Again"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcalifornias-blatantly-unconstitutional-woke-quotas-for-corporate-boards-struck-down-again%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1489352&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/gavel-e1653319662881.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>As surging crime rates, record-high gas prices, and rampant homelessness plague the daily lives of California\u2019s most vulnerable residents, Democrats in that state are leaning into identity politics and divisive progressive policies in order to distract from their failures.<\/p>\n<p>Support for affirmative action is nothing new on the left. But moves by Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers to usher in explicit quota systems that would force corporations to prioritize sex, race, and sexual preference ahead of merit were so radical that they garnered national attention and culminated in multiple court challenges.<\/p>\n<p>Judge Maureen Duffy-Lewis of the Superior Court of California in Los Angeles County <a href=\"https:\/\/www.judicialwatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Crest-v-Padilla-Verdict-CA-May-2022.pdf\">ruled<\/a> in favor of the conservative foundation Judicial Watch earlier this month, finding that a law requiring women on corporate boards of directors violates the state constitution.<\/p>\n<p>The 2018 law <a href=\"https:\/\/leginfo.legislature.ca.gov\/faces\/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB826\">mandated<\/a> that all publicly held corporations headquartered in the Golden State have a minimum of one director who \u201cself-identifies her gender as a woman\u201d by the close of 2019. Boards with five directors were required to have at least two women by January of 2022, while boards with six or more directors were required to have at least three.<\/p>\n<p>Judicial Watch argued that the statute violates the Equal Protection Clause of the California Constitution: \u201cThe legislation\u2019s quota system for female representation on corporate boards employs express gender classifications. As a result, [the law] is immediately suspect and presumptively invalid and triggers strict scrutiny review.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lawful discrimination must satisfy the legal standard of strict scrutiny; the government must successfully demonstrate that a discriminatory law serves a \u201ccompelling state interest\u201d and is \u201cnarrowly tailored\u201d to achieve that interest. In this case, Judge Duffy-Lewis found that the state of California failed to meet its burden every step of the way.<\/p>\n<h2>Law Not Necessary or Narrowly Tailored<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cAs to the claimed interest that [the law] was passed to remedy discrimination, the defendant has not met its burden to show that this is necessary nor narrowly tailored. Therefore \u2026 the Court determines that [the law] violates the Equal Protection Clause of the California Constitution and is thus enjoined,\u201d she wrote. It doesn\u2019t get any more straightforward than this.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Court eviscerated California\u2019s unconstitutional gender quota mandate,\u201d Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton <a href=\"https:\/\/www.judicialwatch.org\/court-declares-unconstitutional-california-gender-quota\/\">said<\/a> in a statement. \u201cThis is the second California court decision finding that quotas for corporate boards are unconstitutional. The radical Left\u2019s unprecedented attacks on anti-discrimination law has suffered another stinging defeat.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Last month, Judge Terry Green <a href=\"https:\/\/www.judicialwatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Crest-v-Padilla-order-37513-1.pdf\">granted<\/a> summary judgment to Judicial Watch in a separate case, finding that a similar law mandating racial and sexual identity quotas on corporate boards \u201cviolates the Equal Protection Clause of the California Constitution on its face.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That law explicitly <a href=\"https:\/\/leginfo.legislature.ca.gov\/faces\/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB979\">required<\/a> California-based companies to have at least one director from an \u201cunderrepresented community\u201d \u2014 that is, someone who \u201cself-identifies\u201d as either a racial or ethnic minority, or as gay, bisexual, or transgender \u2014 by the end of 2021. Boards with four to eight members were required to have two such directors, while those with nine or more members were required to have at least three.<\/p>\n<p>According to Democrats like Newsom, counting human beings by the color of their skin represents real progress. \u201cWhen we talk about racial justice, we talk about empowerment, we talk about power, we need to talk about seats at the table,\u201d the governor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2020-09-30\/california-law-requires-diversity-corporate-boardrooms-gavin-newsom\">insisted<\/a> when he signed the law back in September 2020.<\/p>\n<h2>Treating Some Individuals Differently<\/h2>\n<p>In a 24-page opinion, Judge Green noted that the statute \u201ctreats similarly situated individuals \u2014 qualified potential corporate board members \u2014 differently based on their membership (or lack thereof) in certain listed racial, sexual orientation, and gender identity groups. It requires that a certain specific number of board seats be reserved for members of the groups on the list \u2014 and necessarily excludes members of other groups from those seats.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One of the more fascinating portions of Green\u2019s opinion reads: \u201cThe difficulty is that the Legislature is thinking in group terms. But the California Constitution protects the right of <em>individuals <\/em>to equal treatment. Before the Legislature may require that members of one group be given certain board seats, it must first try to create neutral conditions under which qualified individuals from <em>any <\/em>group may succeed. That attempt was not made in this case.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While this may be a legal analysis, it\u2019s also a remarkably fitting distillation of our current culture. Identity politics and racial essentialism have become so ubiquitous among progressive politicians and far-left activists that many now openly call for seeing people as interchangeable members of broad, collective groups rather than as unique individuals created by God.<\/p>\n<p>Instinctively thinking in group terms is immoral; it\u2019s dehumanizing and it robs people of their autonomy, agency, and dignity. The two recent court rulings appropriately rebuke the woke agenda of California Democrats and help to protect everyone \u2014 regardless of how they look.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">\n  Kiyan Kassam is a conservative writer and journalist based in Vancouver. Follow him on Twitter at <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kiyankassam\">@kiyankassam<\/a>.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As surging crime rates, record-high gas prices, and rampant homelessness plague the daily lives of California\u2019s most vulnerable residents, Democrats in that state are leaning into identity politics and divisive<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":575,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1489352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1489352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/575"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1489352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1489352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1489352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1489352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1489352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}