A two-decade-old affirmative action program giving racial minorities and women a leg up in winning public contracts in San Francisco violates the sweeping ban on race and gender preferences California voters approved in 1996, a Superior Court judge ruled.
Judge James L. Warren said in an opinion issued late Monday night that the city's public contracting rules, which include giving minority and women-owned businesses special notice of application opportunities and an automatic 10 percent deduction from their bids, is an unconstitutional breach of Proposition 209.
"The intent of the voters in adopting Proposition 209 was to outlaw race- and sex-based programs irrespective of the good will and moral position behind any particular program," Warren wrote in striking down San Francisco's contracting methods. "Nobody argues that Proposition 209 carved out an exception based on the concededly good intentions of the city when it created this remedial program."
Details here from the AP via the San Francisco Chronicle.