SACRAMENTO - The National Center for Public Policy Research filed a federal lawsuit on Nov. 22 in the District Court of Eastern California against Shirley N. Weber in her official capacity as Secretary of State of the State of California for violation of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and 42 U.S.C. 1983.
According to the complaint, since 2020, all publicly held corporations headquartered in California have been required to meet a quota of female board members or face fines. Beginning 2022, companies will also be required to meet additional quotas of diverse board members, the suit says.
The National Center for Public Policy Research alleges that these new laws impact the behavior of shareholders. The Center opposes the adoption of the quotas, claiming the only way that a person can be elected as a director is if shareholders vote in favor at the annual shareholder meeting and many of the companies the center invests in have adopted a majority voting standard for the election of directors.
The Center claims that the diversity quotas therefore impose a race, sex, and sexual orientation-based quota directly on shareholders, seek to force shareholders to perpetuate race, sex, and sexual orientation-based discrimination and further undermine the National Center’s efforts to put forward proposals that bar corporations from considering characteristics such as race, sex, and sexual orientation in the selection of directors.
The National Center seeks a declaratory judgment that California’s diversity quotas is discriminatory, a permanent injunction preventing Defendant from enforcing or taking further action to enforce the diversity quotas, nominal damages, attorney's fees and cost of suit. The National Center is represented by Anastasia P. Boden of Sacramento.
District Court of Eastern California case number 2:21-cv-02168-KJM-DB