Judge Rules California's Law Requiring Women on Corporate Boards Unconstitutional

A Superior Court judge in Los Angeles has ruled that the law requiring women on corporate boards is unconstitutional.

Then-governor Jerry Brown signed the bill into law in 2018. But it was obvious to most constitutional scholars from the outset that the law didn’t have a prayer of surviving a court test. It violated the equal protection clause of the California and U.S. constitutions by mandating a gender-based quota. The court struck down a similar law mandating racial quotas on corporate boards last month.

The radicals in California are very disappointed.

Associated Press:

State Senate leader Toni Atkins, a Democrat from San Diego, said the ruling was disappointing and a reminder “that sometimes our legalities don’t match our realities.”

“More women on corporate boards means better decisions and businesses that outperform the competition,” Atkins said in a statement. “We believe this law remains important, despite the disheartening ruling.”

In case you missed it, our “legalities” are our “realities.” They only don’t “match” in the fevered imaginations of left-wing radicals.

Favoring one gender or one race over another because of past discrimination is acceptable only when numerical quotas are left out of the equation. There is nothing inherently wrong with recognizing past injustices, but the remedy must conform to existing law. Atkins thinks we should toss the law and just make stuff up as we go along.

The state defended the law as constitutional saying it was necessary to reverse a culture of discrimination that favored men and was put in place only after other measures failed. The state also said the law didn’t create a quota because boards could add seats for female directors without stripping men of their positions.

Although the law carried potential hefty penalties for failing to file an annual report or comply with the law, a chief in the secretary of state’s office acknowledged during the trial that it was toothless.

No fines have ever been levied and there was no intention to do so, Betsy Bogart testified. Further, a letter that surfaced during trial from former Secretary of State Alex Padilla warned Brown weeks before he signed the law that it was probably unenforceable.

The law was never intended to address the shortage of women on corporate boards. It was an attempt by the government to bully private companies into carrying out a social policy that the Democrats knew would never pass legal muster.

It wasn’t the first time the Democratic legislature tried to throw its weight around and bully private companies in California. And it won’t be the last.