PLEASE SIGN OUR PETITION: The "NO on ACA7" campaign starts NOW!

California legislators are refusing to give up on their effort to repeal Prop 209. They are determined to seize the power to discriminate and grant preferential treatment based on race, sex, or ethnicity. They are obsessed.

In 2020, we defeated them overwhelmingly when they tried to eliminate these precious words from the state constitution---words that had been put there in 1996 by Prop 209:

"The state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin."

Help from people like you was crucial in defeating that repeal effort (known as Prop 16). We were outspent more than 14 to 1, but in my humble opinion, we had the best, most effective volunteers of any campaign in history, and we made every dollar count. I am grateful to all of you.

This time around, the legislators are being trickier. The new proposal---known as Assembly Constitutional Amendment 7 or ACA7---masquerades as a small "exception" to Prop 209. But in fact, it is intended to eviscerate it. If it passes, it will give the governor the power to grant an unlimited number of "exceptions." As long as he is able to point to (or create) "research" claiming that discrimination would be a good thing, he can cast Prop 209 aside. Alas, we live in a world in which "research" can be found to support just about anything.

We cannot let them succeed. ACA7 has already passed in the Assembly. But we are hoping to head it off in the Senate. If we can do that, we won't have to go through the long and expensive trouble of a full-scale referendum campaign. The time to strike is now.

We have therefore formed a "No on ACA7" campaign to organize and direct efforts in defense of Prop 209. We need your help. We need you to sign and circulate our petition---where we hope to have 25,000 signatures by January 15. We need you to write letters and make telephone calls to senators. For your convenience, we have provided an email page that will allow you to send emails to any or all state senators. And here's a link to a web site that will identify your senator for you (though it would be especially helpful if you could contact more than one senator). We must make sure every single senator hears our voices loudly and clearly.

If you can help us out with a donation, that would be great too. If we have the resources to fight ACA7 now, we may be able to stop this before it goes onto the ballot in November. (Please note that contributions to change.org where our petition is hosted do NOT go to our campaign.)

In the coming weeks, we will be continuing to gather support from a diverse and bipartisan coalition of allies. The leaders of our campaign will consist in part of veterans of both the "Yes on Prop 209" and "No on Prop 16" campaigns. (Ward Connerly chaired both campaigns and this time will be our Honorary Chair; I co-chaired both campaigns.) But we haven't forgotten to include a new generation of leaders in the fight for equality. We need everyone.

Finally, we have set up an Action Alert page on our web site.Check it out if you are interested in doing more.

Thank you for whatever help you are able to give us. We have a lot of work to do and a short amount of time to do it in. We hope you will join us.

Sincerely yours,

Gail Heriot

Chair of the "NO on ACA7 Campaign"

(also Professor of Law, University of San Diego, and Member, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights^*)

^*All professional titles in this message are for identification purposes only and do not imply the endorsement of any institution.