California Judge Strikes Down Minority Preferences for Health Scholarships

A California court has ruled that a state scholarship program for health-care professionals can no longer give preference to members of certain racial or ethnic minority groups. The 1996 law creating the program said the scholarships were intended mainly for minority students entering the health professions, but later that year state voters approved a constitutional amendment prohibiting state and local agencies from granting racial, ethnic, or gender preferences.

In a decision issued this month, Judge Rudolph Loncke of California’s Superior Court for Sacramento County held that favoring minority applicants conflicted with the 1996 constitutional amendment, and that the program should therefore operate without regard to applicants’ race.

A statement issued by the Pacific Legal Foundation, a legal advocacy group that brought the lawsuit challenging the scholarship preference, characterized the case as “statutory cleanup” intended to ensure no state laws conflict with the 1996 amendment, known as Proposition 209.