A California judge ruled that the state’s diversity law requiring corporations to have racial minorities or members of the LGBTQ+ community serve on their board of directors was unconstitutional.
The judge, who handed down the ruling Friday, concluded that the law violated California’s constitutional equal protection clause, according to a summary judgment granted to Judicial Watch, a conservative legal group that filed a permanent injunction against the measure.
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement to The Associated Press that the decision “declared unconstitutional one of the most blatant and significant attacks in the modern era on constitutional prohibitions against discrimination.”
Signed into law by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2020, the law mandates that corporate boards of publicly traded companies with a main executive office in California must have a racial or ethnic minority or a member of the LGBTQ+ community serving on their boards by the end of 2021.