California passes bill to allow slavery lineage in admissions despite affirmative action bans
The California State Legislature passed Assembly Bill 7, which would allow universities to consider applicants’ lineage to slavery in admissions, a move supporters frame as part of reparations.
Bill 7, introduced by Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, cleared the legislature on Sept. 12 and now awaits Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature.
The California State Legislature has passed a bill that would allow colleges to consider an applicant’s lineage to slavery in admissions decisions.
Assembly Bill 7, introduced by Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, cleared the legislature on Sept. 12 and now awaits Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature.
Bryan has defended the bill as a “relationship to a legacy of harm,” not a race-based admissions policy that violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
The California Association of Black Lawyers has also backed the measure, with Secretary Tiega Varlack telling lawmakers it “focuses on descendants of enslaved people, a legal term of ours that gives us a better chance of surviving legal scrutiny.”
Many legally oppose this bill and declare it unconstitutional, an attempt to skirt the Trump administration’s push for universities across the country to comply with Title VI.
The Pacific Legal Foundation has called the bill a “proxy for race” centering the ways it seeks to rename and recategorize race-based decision making practices under new terminology.
“Given the fact that the bill is a priority for the California Legislative Black Caucus’s reparations package and the history of California’s reparations movement thoroughly conflating race and lineage, AB 7 seems unlawful and unconstitutional,” said Wenyuan Wu, executive director of the Californians for Equal Rights Foundation.
In the 2023 case of Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, the Supreme Court held that Harvard University’s and the University of North Carolina’s race-based admissions policies violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. “Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it,” the court said.
The court ruled that considering race as a “determinative tip” in admissions was unconstitutional, emphasizing that laws must operate equally upon all individuals, rejecting affirmative action in higher education admissions.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration clarified that racial discrimination in admissions and scholarships violates federal and constitutional law. On Feb. 14, the Department of Education warned federally funded universities to dismantle Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs or risk losing funding.
The department stated in a letter that “discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin is illegal,” emphasizing institutions cannot use race in admissions, hiring, scholarships, or campus life.
Throughout the past year, Campus Reform has tracked the proposed law through the legislative process. Last December, Democratic Assemblymember Bryan introduced the legislation to allow the University of California and California State University to favor descendants of slaves in admissions.
[RELATED: Harvard ends long-running minority recruitment program following federal DEI crackdown]
This summer, the bill advanced through the California Senate Judiciary Committee in an 11-2 vote.
Campus Reform has contacted the University of California and California State University for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
