By Alexander Nieves
09/30/2020 05:31 PM EDT Updated: 09/30/2020 05:42 PM EDT
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday signed bills aimed at addressing systematic racism in California’s court system and corporate boardrooms, as well as studying reparations for African Americans.
Impact: Lawmakers said during a virtual bill-signing event that they introduced many proposals before the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd in May, making the point that racism has long existed in California. The post-Floyd activism helped provide momentum for the bills to get through the Legislature, rekindling national discussion about racial inequality in all aspects of life.
“In some respects it’s rather sad that I’ll be signing a couple of these bills, that they weren’t addressed decades ago,” Newsom said.
Background: Newsom signed CA AB3121 (19R) by Assemblymember Shirley Weber (D-San Diego) to establish a nine-member task force to study reparations for African Americans, with special consideration for those whose descendants were enslaved in the U.S. The task force would have to act by July 2023.
He signed another Weber bill, CA AB3070 (19R), which will prohibit attorneys from rejecting jurors on the basis of race, gender or another classification unless they are able to provide “clear and convincing evidence” that their rationale for excluding someone from a jury was not related to the individual’s identity. The bill will change the peremptory challenge system, which allows each side in a case to reject jurors — up to 20 depending on the potential severity of the sentence — without providing a reason.
“This state has deeply rooted issues about race and slavery,” said Weber, chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus, in a virtual bill signing event. “So we’re talking about adjusting the issues of justice and fairness in this country.”
Newsom also signed CA AB979 (19R) by Assemblymember Chris Holden (D-Pasadena), which could have a major impact on the makeup of boards at some of the largest corporations in the U.S. The bill requires publicly-held corporations based in California to place at least one individual from a historically underrepresented community on their boards by the end of 2021.
People of color hold only 16.1 percent of board seats at Fortune 500 companies, according to a 2019 study by the Harvard Law School. Asian/Pacific Islanders make up the smallest proportion of corporate board directors at 3.7 percent, slightly below Latinos at 3.8 percent and African Americans at 8.6 percent.
Under the bill, the qualifying communities include Black, Hispanic, Latino, Asian American, Pacific Islander, Native American, Native Hawaiian, Alaska Native or LGBTQ.
Newsom signed CA AB2542 (19R), by Assemblymember Ash Kalra (D-San Jose), which prohibits district attorneys from seeking or obtaining a conviction or criminal sentence on the basis of race, ethnicity, or national origin. The bill widens the criteria that defendants or those convicted can use to prove such discrimination led to harsher penalties or charges, if they are challenging their cases due to bias. That criteria
includes the use of discriminatory language during proceedings or statistical evidence that they received a conviction or length of sentence that is disproportionate to those received by individuals of another race or ethnicity.
What’s next: AB 2542 will go into effect for cases where a judgment hasn’t been issued by Jan. 1, 2021, while AB 3070 applies to jury selections starting in 2022.
AB 979 will expand in 2022 to require that two directors from underrepresented communities be on boards with four to nine members, and three at corporations with more than nine directors.
