I NEED YOUR HELP TO DEAL WITH CALIFORNIA’S OUT-OF-CONTROL LEGISLATURE: Have you ever wanted to give me a Christmas present? One that won’t cost you a nickel? Here’s how you can do it: The California legislature is again trying to repeal Prop 209–the 1996 amendment to the state constitution that prohibits preferential treatment based on race, sex, or ethnicity in public education, public education and public contracting. They tried this three years ago (Prop 16) and got spanked at the ballot box. We defeated them overwhelmingly even though they outspent us more than 14 to 1.
This time they are being trickier. Instead of a straight repeal, they are considering a referendum that would give the governor the power to grant “exceptions” to Prop 209. The bill–Assembly Constitutional Amendment 7 or ACA7–passed the Assembly in the autumn and will be before the Senate when the legislature reconvenes in January. I am hoping to convince the Senate that this is a bad idea. I don’t want to have to spend the better part of a year on another campaign.
A quick, cheap way to begin getting the Senate’s attention is through X (Twitter). I have put together photo parade of about 100 people holding “No on ACA7” signs. Last night I posted (tweeted) 24 of the photos. All of them were tagged to the Senate, leadership. Consequently, every time someone “likes” one of my posts (tweets), leaders of the Senate will get a little notification. Later today, tomorrow, and Friday, I will be posting more.
If readers with a Twitter account are so inclined, it would be great if you could go into my X/twitter page and “like” all the 24 photos I sent out last night. It would equally great if you could re-post/re-tweet a bunch of them. With any luck, the Senate leaders who are tagged won’t be able to ignore the number of notifications they get.
The Calif constitution’s ban on preferential treatment based on race, sex, or ethnicity was put there in 1996 by Prop 209. Now state legislators want to create an unlimited number of “exceptions.” They will swallow the rule. #NoACA7 #KeepDiscriminationIllegal pic.twitter.com/sZVoh6PXVo
— Gail Heriot (@GailHeriot) December 19, 2023
If you’re wondering if I feel like Sisyphus working to get Prop 209 passed, defending it in courts, fighting Prop 16, and now this, the answer is yes.
Thank you to anyone who is in position to help. (Bumped)