It does not affect any court order or consent decree or any act required as a condition of receiving Federal money.
The proposition amends the California Constitution to say, ''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.'' The new ban also applies to cities, counties, public schools and public colleges. On the other hand, the Pacific Legal Foundation, a conservative group representing supporters of Proposition 209, filed a suit in state court in Sacramento yesterday, seeking prompt enforcement. The suit maintained that the measure denied ''equal protection of the laws'' to women and members of minority groups in violation of the 14th Amendment to the Federal Constitution. The measure was supposed to take effect immediately, but critics, including minority contractors, filed a lawsuit yesterday in Federal District Court in San Francisco to block enforcement.
Supporters of a measure to dismantle state-sponsored affirmative action programs in California predicted yesterday that its approval would begin a new era of equal opportunity by wiping out preferences based on race or sex in public hiring, contracting and college admissions.īut civil rights advocates said that the results did not necessarily foreshadow a surge of opposition to affirmative action in other states or in Congress.Ĭalifornia approved the measure, Proposition 209, on Tuesday by a vote of 54 percent to 46 percent.