Regents Meet Tomorrow to Endorse Ending Ban on Affirmative Action

The UC Regents are having a special meeting tomorrow by teleconference to endorse restoration of affirmative action in admissions.* Under Prop 209 of 1996 as approved by voters, affirmative action was essentially banned in California. In fact, the Regents before Prop 209 had banned affirmative action in UC admissions. You can see that action at the link below. Ward Connerly, a Regent at that time, pushed the Board's action and later supported Prop 209 (which made what the Regents had done redundant since 209 included UC. (Later, the Regents repealed their original action which had no effect because of Prop 209.)

The legislature may put a repeal of Prop 209 on the ballot, but hasn't yet done so. It would require a two thirds vote. In the past, there has been some opposition from Asian groups to repeal, sufficient to block the effort. Recent events may have changed the political dynamics. In effect, the Regents tomorrow are voting to encourage the legislature to put a repeal on the ballot. The action is endorsed by the UC president and the chair of the Board.

The Regents agenda item for tomorrow is at:
https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/june20/board-6.15.pdf and https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/june20/b1.pdf. There are no other action items on the agenda, but there will be public comments.

The original Regents' action can be seen at the link below:

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Note that if the legislature does put repeal of 209 on the ballot and if voters approve appeal, there could yet be an overturning of affirmative action by the U.S. Supreme Court which now has a decidedly conservative tilt. The Harvard admissions case about which this blog has reported may end up at the Court as a test case. Or some other test case might lead to a Supreme Court ruling on AA.
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*UC was not entirely blocked from AA in hiring by Prop 209 because of the federal funding it receives. The funding comes with certain conditions related to affirmative action.