I WISH I COULD GIVE A SPEECH LIKE THIS:  Instead Konstantin Kisin gave one.  Worth a listen.

HOT! HOT! HOT!:  My partner-in-crime Maimon Schwarzschild and I have just posted our take on Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (2023) and the way in which that case brings a new clarity to the law.  (One of the points we make is that the dissents are really hardcore.)

THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST ACA7 MARCHES FORWARD:  If you’re a regular Instapundit reader, you probably already know about my efforts to stop Assembly Constitutional Amendment 7 (or “ACA7“), which is currently pending in the California Senate (after passing in the Assembly on a strict party-line vote).

But if you haven’t heard about ACA7 before, you can read about it here, here, and here.  I posted the text of Bill McGurn’s piece in the Wall Street Journal’s piece here (without the paywall).  And here’s a new piece by Mike Gonzalez in the Washington Examiner.  Word is getting around.

If you’d like to help, one way to do so is write an email to all state senators.  Here is the page on our web site that will allow you send them.  You can either use the standard message provided for you (easy peazy) or (even better) you can write your own message.  To do so, just press “copy” next to the list of senators to attach the email addresses to your clip board and then transfer them over to your email.

And if you don’t have time for that, there’s always just signing our petition if you haven’t already done so.  You don’t have to be a Californian to sign.

Meanwhile, here are more pictures from the “No on ACA7” photo parade we did on Twitter at Christmastime.  (We’ve been doing Zoom meetings with senators this month.  In February, we’ll be live and in person in Sacramento.)

They just can’t stop! California legislators are again trying to gut the state constitution’s ban preferential treatment based on race, sex, or ethnicity. They WANT the power to discriminate. Don’t let them have it. #NoACA7 #KeepDiscriminationIllegal pic.twitter.com/LZH5ntMrd3

— Gail Heriot (@GailHeriot) December 21, 2023

The #NoACA7 photo parade returns!
He can’t vote, but he can dream. And you can bet his parents can vote. #KeepDiscriminationIllegal pic.twitter.com/JLpiUjKgdB

— Gail Heriot (@GailHeriot) December 20, 2023

THEY SAID NO:  Earlier this week, the Supreme Court declined to hear Metropolitan School District of Martinsville v. A.C., a transgender bathroom case.  That’s too bad.  I thought the amicus brief I worked on had a good argument on statutory grounds, and my colleagues and I were prepared to make an equally good argument on constitutional grounds if the petition for certiorari had been granted.  Maybe the Court is waiting for a case that centers on athletics instead.  Or maybe they are just timid.  I hope it’s the former.

SOME OF THE “NO on ACA7” PHOTO PARADE’S GREATEST HITS:  I posted over 100 photos in the “No on ACA7” photo parade on X/Twitter in December.  Most were tagged to Governor Newsom and to Senate leaders. (A technical glitch made a few of them go out without tags.  Never trust me with anything technical.)  Here are a few of my favorites.

They just can’t stop! California legislators are again trying to gut the state constitution’s ban preferential treatment based on race, sex, or ethnicity. They WANT the power to discriminate. Don’t let them have it. Keep discrimination illegal. #NoACA7 pic.twitter.com/4jIawB5CP9

— Gail Heriot (@GailHeriot) December 19, 2023

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/25EpPCijaR

— Gail Heriot (@GailHeriot) December 21, 2023

The “No on ACA7” photo parade continues! Don’t let California legislators gut the state constitution’s ban on preferential treatment based on race, sex, or ethnicity. #NoACA7 #KeepDiscriminationIllegal #NoACA7photoparade pic.twitter.com/hJrssQHl7a

— Gail Heriot (@GailHeriot) December 26, 2023

(Yes, if you “like” or “re-post/re-tweet” them, Newsom and others will receive a little notification, so if you have a minute and are so inclined, please “like” and “re-post/re-tweet.)

REINING IN CALIFORNIA’S OUT-OF CONTROL LEGISLATURE:  Last week I linked to Bill McGurn’s Wall Street Journal op-ed on our ugly situation here in California.  If you couldn’t get behind the paywall, I’ve included the text of his piece below.  (By the way, if you haven’t done so already, please sign our cute little petition.  You don’t need to be a Californian.)

Making Discrimination OK Again:

The losers in a 2020 California referendum are back again with a sneakier version.

by William McGurn – Wall Street Journal

January 1, 2024

Do they ever give up? Those looking to divvy up Americans by race, that is.

In California they tried to get race preferences approved in a 2020 referendum, but voters rejected it 57.2% to 42.8%. This was a stunning rebuke, not only because the rejection came from residents of a blue state but because the losing side had outspent opponents something like 14 to 1.

In 2023 the Supreme Court weighed in with a landmark ruling that barred colleges from treating people as members of a racial group instead of as individuals—and cast constitutional doubt on all race-based preferences. “Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote. Couldn’t be clearer, right?

Not in California. Undaunted state Assemblyman Corey Jackson is pushing a bill called ACA7. It takes aim at the state ban on race preferences that voters put in the constitution in 1996 when they passed Proposition 209. Californians reaffirmed Proposition 209 three years ago at the ballot box.

The language the voters agreed to and the activists hate reads as follows: “The state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting.”

Unlike the 2020 effort, the new bill would leave that language intact. Instead, it would add a provision allowing the governor to create “exceptions.” Effectively that would gut the ban.

Apparently, the lesson the advocates of state-sponsored discrimination have taken from their defeat is that if at first you don’t succeed, try something sneakier.

(more…)

PURR:  Power Line is helping me.

GRUMPY ECONOMIST:  I should have posted this a few days ago (before Gay resigned at Harvard), but I forgot:  Fire Gay for the right reasons.

WORD IS GETTING AROUND!:  “Making Discrimination OK Again:  The Losers in a 2020 California Referendum Are Back Again with a Sneakier Version” by the WSJ’s Bill McGurn.

If you haven’t signed the petition, please consider doing so.  You don’t need to be a Californian.

And if you have a X/Twitter account, this one in tagged to Senate leaders and Gavin Newsom.  By liking and/or retweeting, you’re giving them your opinion.

They can’t vote, but they can dream. And you can bet their parents can and will vote.

Don’t divide us.#NoACA7photoparade #KeepDiscriminationIllegal #NoACA7 pic.twitter.com/KUyn3vAp2N

— Gail Heriot (@GailHeriot) December 27, 2023

Cheers!

NO on CALIFORNIA’S ACA7:  Here’s our new web site.  Onward!!!

ROGER CLEGG:  “You Can Help California at Christmastime.”  Or New Year’s.

STILL GRIFTING AFTER ALL THESE YEARS:  “The Southern Poverty Law Center’s New Enemy: Americans Who Accept Biology.“

IOWAHAWK:  Before President Polk went to bed on December 28, 1846, he wrote in his diary, “Nothing much happened today.”  In fact, he’d signed into law the bill that made Iowa our 29th state.  Happy Birthday, Iowa.  I think you’re something.

I NEED MORE HELP TO STOP THE CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE’S POWER GRAB:  Last week, I asked Instapundit readers for “X/Twitter” help in opposing the California legislature’s new effort to gut Prop 209.  And you came through!  Thank you to all who helped!  You are terrific!

I have another request.  Mercifully, it still won’t cost you a nickel.  (If this turkey of a bill makes it to the ballot, I will start asking for money then, but we stand a decent chance of stopping it in the California Senate on a shoestring budget.)

Our “NO on ACA7” PETITION needs at least 25,000 signatures to get noticed.  And we’re probably going to need a lot more.  Fortunately, we have a while. Today is our first earnest day of collecting them.  You don’t need to be a Californian to sign.  (But if you are a Californian, please be sure to include your zip code.  In the past, some legislators have asked us for the number of signers from their district’s zip codes.)

If you can also share the petition with your friends or via social media that would be terrific.

For those of you you haven’t been following this, Prop 209 amended the state constitution in 1996 with these words:  “The state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin ….”  California’s deep-blue legislature has been gunning for it since.  They tried to get the voters to repeal it three years ago with Prop 16.  But Californians stunned them by overwhelmingly voting to keep it.  It was a real David and Goliath moment; we won despite being outspent more than 14 to 1.

It’s surprising to me that they are trying again so soon after that defeat.  But I guess I should have seen it coming.  The report of the California Task Force on Reparations, which was released earlier this year, called for Prop 209 to be gutted.  It stands in the way of their proposals.  Right on schedule, the Assembly voted for ACA7.

The new effort is trickier.  Instead of attempting an outright repeal, it creates a procedure under the governor can make “exceptions.”  All Gov. Newsom (and future governors) will need is to be able to point to (or create) “research” showing that preferential treatment would be a good thing.  But in a world in which “scholarly” research tells us that men are women and women are men, that limitation is not worth a red cent. (Bumped.)

POWERLINE:  Cheering for Mass Murder.

MINDING THE CAMPUS:  “The Evolution of Christmas.”

MERRY, MERRY:  “Keeper of Christmas.”