California is asking an appellate court to revive a law requiring publicly traded companies headquartered in the state to meet minimum gender quotas on their corporate boards after a trial court ruled the mandate unconstitutional.
According to Judicial Watch, the state has appealed the decision that invalidated Senate Bill 826, arguing the law should be reinstated despite the lower court’s finding that it violated California’s equal protection guarantees. The trial court concluded the state failed to provide sufficient evidence to justify classifying board members based on sex under the heightened constitutional standard applied to gender-based laws.
Judicial Watch, which represents California taxpayers challenging the law, has filed a 90-page brief urging the California Court of Appeal to uphold the trial court’s decision. The organization argues the state is continuing to spend taxpayer dollars defending what it calls an unconstitutional quota system.
Senate Bill 826, signed into law in 2018, required publicly held corporations headquartered in California to include a minimum number of women on their boards of directors, with the required number increasing based on the size of the board. Companies that failed to comply faced financial penalties.
Judicial Watch filed the gender quota lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court in 2019 on behalf of three California taxpayers. The lawsuit challenged the 2018 law, which mandated every publicly held corporation headquartered in California to have at least one director “who self-identifies her gender as a woman” on its board of directors (Robin Crest et al. v. Alex Padilla (No. 19ST-CV-27561)).
Judicial Watch’s appellate brief argues that California abandoned many of the justifications it previously relied upon to defend the law and now is attempting to recast SB 826 as legislation intended to remedy discrimination—an argument that failed at trial.
“California continues to waste taxpayer dollars defending the indefensible – an unconstitutional gender quota scheme imposed on corporations that only serves to help corporations virtue signal about hiring women for their boards through government-mandated quotas,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The trial court correctly concluded the state failed to satisfy the demanding constitutional standards required for government discrimination based on sex. The Court of Appeal should affirm that ruling and reject California’s attempt to rewrite the purpose of the law after losing at trial.”
In 2020, Judicial Watch filed a separate taxpayer lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court challenging Assembly Bill 979, which Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law on September 30, 2020. That law mandated racial, ethnicity, sexual preference and transgender status quotas for corporate boards. On April 1, 2022, the Superior Court issued a ruling and opinion striking down Assembly Bill 979’s quotas and granting a permanent injunction prohibiting the secretary from spending taxpayer money on the unconstitutional law.
See the entire Judicial Watch press release here.
This story was created with the help from artificial intelligence.
