Backers of California's Preference Ban Seek a Role in Its Legal Defense

The Chronicle of Higher Education
June 17, 2010, 03:14 PM ET

Several prominent supporters of California's Proposition 209, which barred public colleges from considering applicants' race and ethnicity, are seeking a role in defending the measure from a lawsuit challenging it as unconstitutional. Their motion to intervene as defendants in the case argues that the defendants now named in the lawsuit—Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the University of California's Board of Regents—cannot be counted on to put up a strong fight on behalf of the preference ban, which the state's voters passed in 1996. The intervention motion was filed by Ward Connerly, a former University of California regent who helped lead the campaign for Proposition 209; the American Civil Rights Foundation, which Mr. Connerly established; and the California affiliate of the National Association of Scholars. The Pacific Legal Foundation is representing them.

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