In the midst of public opposition, the ACA7 California Equal Rights Constitutional Amendment proposal, which aims to promote racial preferences, will not appear on this year’s ballot. The legislators behind the amendment are also concerned that many voters may not support it, but they have stated that they will continue to promote it in future elections.
June 27th (Thursday) marked the last day for the California Secretary of State to add all eligible propositions to the November ballot.
The Chairman of the grassroots organization “NO on ACA7” and law professor at the University of San Diego, Gail Heriot, announced that the ACA7 constitutional amendment proposal titled “Government Preferences: Interventions or Programs: Exceptions” will not be on the ballot.
She explained that if members of the State Senate had wanted the ACA7 amendment to be on the November ballot, Thursday was the deadline for the Senate to pass ACA7. However, the possibility of passing it before the deadline was very slim, as even the main sponsor of ACA7, Assemblyman Corey Jackson, admitted.
Since the introduction of the ACA7 amendment, the public has been resisting it through various means; over the past few years, there has been ongoing opposition from the public to equal rights proposals based on racial factors that promote racial preferences. In 2020, 57.23% of California voters blocked Proposition 16.
The ACA7 amendment aims to circumvent the restrictions of the current Proposition 209 Constitution, attempting to allow state agencies to send waivers to the Governor, use government funding, and subsidize specific cultural projects in any industry based on research or research results—as long as these projects are intended to improve the life expectancy, education, and poverty alleviation of “specific groups,” with the definition of “specific groups” based on race, color, ethnicity, nationality, marginalized gender (non-binary gender), and sexual orientation.
Proposition 209 prohibits discrimination or preferential treatment based on race, gender, color, ethnicity, national origin in government employment, public schools, and government contracting.
The ACA7 amendment is one of the 14 priority legislative items supported by the California Legislative Black Caucus this year.
According to the California political news website CalMatters, the initiator of the amendment, Jackson, had previously stated that he hoped to get the ACA7 amendment on the ballot before the deadline this year. However, a few days ago, he mentioned that the Democratic leadership supports the proposed amendment and they just need to find the right time for the voters to cast their votes; before the vote, they also need to predict the voter turnout.
Heriot thanked all the people and volunteers who responded to the resistance movement. She also cautioned that even though no committee hearings had been scheduled for the ACA7 amendment by the deadline, “the California Senate could definitely pass the bill through the committee process later and vote on it in 2026. Special elections before 2026 cannot be ruled out, so we will continue to monitor the progress of ACA7.”