US

California Court Blocks Diversity Quotas For Corporate Boards

(Photo by JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images)

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Alexa Schwerha Contributor
Font Size:

The California Court of Appeals upheld two injunctions against state-mandated diversity quotas on corporate boards earlier this month, according to court documents.

California has passed several laws which require corporations to hire at least one director to fulfill a quota based on categories such as sex, race or sexual orientation. The appellate court rejected the California secretary of State’s emergency request to lift two injunctions issued by trial courts which claimed that the laws are unconstitutional. (RELATED: D.C. United Slapped With $25,000 Fine After Breaking Race Quota Rule)

“The California courts again have upheld the core American value of equal protection under the law,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton in Tuesday’s press release. “Judicial Watch’s taxpayer clients are heroes for standing up for civil rights against the Left’s pernicious efforts to undo anti-discrimination protections. Judicial Watch’s legal team has helped protect the civil rights of every American with these successful lawsuits.”

Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group, filed two lawsuits on behalf of individual California taxpayers which alleged that two laws passed between 2018 and 2020 to mandate diversity quotas in the workplace violated the Equal Protection Clause of the California constitution. 

The first lawsuit was filed in 2019 and tackled a 2018 law which required every public corporation based in California reserve a seat on its board of directors for someone “who self-identifies her gender as a woman.”

Judicial Watch then filed a second lawsuit in 2020 against a law signed by Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom which required that California-based companies use “racial, ethnicity, sexual preference and transgender status quotas” for their board of directors.

Judicial Watch and the California secretary of State did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.