Resolutions
Passed--Resolution Opposing Proposition 54
Posted by Nathan Quigley, Secretary on Feb 7, 2004, 23:30
|
|
Associated Students of the University of California, UC Hastings
Resolution Number:
Title: ASUCH opposes Proposition 54.
Sponsor: Deborah Lagutaris
Co-sponsors: National Lawyers Guild, Hastings Race and Poverty Law Journal, Students Raising Consciousness, Japanese Law Society, Asian/Pacific-American Law Students' Association (A/PALSA), Black Law Students Association (BLSA), LaRaza, South Asian Law Students Association (SALSA), Middle Eastern Law Students Association (MELSA), Hastings Public Interest Law Foundation (HPILF), OUTLAW, Hastings Democratic Caucus, Korean American Law Students Association (KALSA), Association of Communication, Sports, and Entertainment Law (ACSEL), Filipino Bar Association of Northern California Hastings Chapter (FBANC), Hastings Health Law Organization, Vietnamese American Law Students Association (VALS), ABA/Law Student Division at Hastings, Clara Foltz Feminist Association (CFFA).
Date Presented: August 29, 2003
Date Passed: September 24, 2003
Whereas, from healthcare, to education, to basic civil rights protections, banning demographic information – basic vital statistics – about race and ethnicity is a mistake for the following reasons:
Noting with concern that Proposition 54 blinds us to real differences between racial and ethnic groups in healthcare, disease patterns, educational opportunities, and academic achievement.
Recognizing that Proposition 54 takes away from doctors, educators, scientists, and advocates powerful tools to identify and measure how well we’re doing to treat, educate, and protect all Californians despite the narrow exceptions written into the Proposition simply to disarm opposition, thus, Proposition 54 undermines accountability.
Noting with concern that Proposition 54 handicaps community groups, local governments, and the state as they develop solutions to healthcare, education, and other disparities in our diverse state.
Understanding that passage of Proposition 54 will defeat attempts at ensuring a diverse student body at UC Hastings, which is a compelling government interest (Bakke v. Regents of University of California, Grutter v. Bollinger)
Understanding the fact that even if racial data is not collected by the government, physical traits cannot be altered, thus, people would continue to be victimized by racism and prejudice that would become more difficult to limit by legal protections.
- Therefore, be it resolved that ASUCH as a representative organization of the students of the University of California, Hastings College of the Law express opposition to the passage of Proposition 54 before the October 7 election wherein it is scheduled.
- Be it further resolved that ASUCH will disseminate this resolution to media and other interested or concerned parties immediately upon passage of the resolution.
- Be it further resolved that ASUCH will support efforts on campus to disseminate information about the harmful effects of Proposition 54 and urge students to vote against its passage.
Information derived from http://www.informedcalifornia.org/facts.shtml
To learn more about Proposition 54, go to Hastings-i Prop 54 information
Associated Students, UC Hastings College of the Law (ASUCH)
200 McAllister
San Francisco, CA 94102
415-565-4600
asuch@uchastings.edu
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
LAW STUDENTS URGE CITIZENS TO VOTE NO ON PROPOSITION 54 IN THE UPCOMING RECALL ELECTION
SAN FRANCISCO, CA. September 29, 2003
ASUCH voted on a resolution to express law student opposition to Proposition 54, the racial information ban initiative. Law students recognize the threats to diversity on campus, and threats to data collection for health reasons, despite weakly worded exemptions in the Proposition. Ward Connerly promises to take this initiative on a national campaign. He is willing to sacrifice the civil rights gains that people fought and died for to the dictates of the right-wing extremist foundations that support him, handsomely, at a salary of $400,000 a year.
Proposition 54 could allow the return to a de facto segregated society in California. Future legislators and leaders do not want to have to undo the harms that passage of Proposition 54 will doubtless allow to occur.
Discrimination in employment and housing would be impossible to track if this initiative passes. Simple minority contractor notification provisions were invalidated in the State of California in a notorious California Supreme Court case based on Connerly’s deceptively worded Proposition 209, passed in 1996. (Hi-Voltage Wire Works v. City of San Jose,79 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 40,347, 00 (2000)). Despite language in Proposition 54 that states that no Federal anti-discrimination laws would be invalidated, it is clear that rights fair-minded Americans have supported for decades are unraveling at the hands of Connerly’s nefarious propositions.
ASUCH President Steve Ngo stated, “Proposition 54 bans crucial information in a society defined and driven by information.”
Deborah Lagutaris, the author of the resolution, added, “White women have benefited most from affirmative action and diversity. I am stunned when people like me who have gained so much from the policies that Connerly is trying to undo seem blind to the implications of measures such as Prop. 54 and Prop. 209.”
The following student organizations at UC Hastings co-sponsored the resolution:
National Lawyers Guild, Hastings Race and Poverty Law Journal, Students Raising Consciousness, Japanese Law Society, Asian/Pacific-American Law Students' Association (A/PALSA), Black Law Students Association (BLSA), LaRaza, South Asian Law Students Association (SALSA), Middle Eastern Law Students Association (MELSA), Hastings Public Interest Law Foundation (HPILF), OUTLAW, Hastings Democratic Caucus, Korean American Law Students Association (KALSA), Association of Communication, Sports, and Entertainment Law (ACSEL), Filipino Bar Association of Northern California Hastings Chapter (FBANC), Hastings Health Law Organization, Vietnamese American Law Students Association (VALS), ABA/Law Student Division at Hastings, Clara Foltz Feminist Association (CFFA), Hastings American Muslim Society (HAMLS).
For more information, and to view the resolution, go to http://www.hastings-i.org/prop54.html
Contact: Deborah Lagutaris
ASUCH Representative and resolution sponsor
Editor-in-Chief, Hastings Independent
EIC@hastings-i.org
Secondary Contact:
Steve Ngo
President, ASUCH
---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ----------
| 
