A law requiring increased membership by women on corporate boards is discriminatory and should be struck down, an attorney for three plaintiffs told a judge Wednesday, but a lawyer for the Attorney General’s Office said the law is fair and the lawsuit challenging its constitutionality should be dismissed.
Lawyer Robert Patrick Sticht, for the plaintiffs, and Supervising Deputy Attorney General Ashante Norton, on behalf of Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber, presented their final arguments to Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Maureen Duffy-Lewis, ending a non-jury trial in which testimony began in early December regarding Senate Bill 826.
Passed in 2018, the law applies to publicly held corporations with principal executive offices located in California and required them to have at least one female director on the board by the close of 2019. Additionally, by the end of 2021, some boards were required to have additional female directors based on the size of the board. Duffy-Lewis took the case under submission and did not say when she would rule.
The conservative judicial watchdog group Judicial Watch filed the taxpayer lawsuit in August 2019 against then-Secretary of State Alex Padilla on behalf of plaintiffs Robin Crest, Earl De Vries and Judy De Vries.
Judicial Watch argues that California’s quotas for women on corporate boards violates the California Constitution’s equal protection clause and asks the court to permanently enjoin any expenditure of taxpayer funds to implement the quotas.
Padilla was appointed to the U.S. Senate by Gov. Gavin Newsom in January 2021 to fill the vacancy created when then-Sen. Kamala Harris was elected vice president. Newsom then appointed Weber to replace Padilla.
Sticht said laws already exist banning gender discrimination and if they are not being enforced, it is up to the Legislature to do so. He also argued that if corporations want to add more women to their boards, they can increase the number of members on the board or fill vacancies with females. However, SB 826 is the wrong way to go about solving the problem, he added.
“The statute is a mandate for a gender quota,” Sticht told the judge.
Former state Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, who co-authored SB 826, testified during the trial. Jackson, D-Santa Barbara, previously said that it is “disappointing that this conservative right wing group is more invested in spending thousands of dollars on a questionable lawsuit than supporting policy that improves business’ profits and boosts our economy.” But Sticht criticized Jackson often during his final argument, saying she had no answer for some of his questions, including whether there were any gender-neutral alternatives to SB 826.
In their court papers, lawyers for the Attorney General’s Office argue that the plaintiffs cannot show that any illegal or wasteful expenditures of taxpayer money has occurred in the implementation of the law’s requirements. They also maintain that the law addresses longstanding discrimination against women in the “secretive process of corporate board director selection on publicly held corporations in California and attains the benefits of gender diversity for the public and the economy.”
SB 826 also does not violate the California Constitution’s equal protection clause, lawyers for the Attorney General’s Office further argue in their court papers.
In her final argument, Norton recalled the testimony of defense witnesses who said that without SB 826, achieving gender equality on California’s corporate boards could take decades. She said everyone benefits from boards that reflect the hard work and achievements of women.
“Increasing women on boards leads to better corporate performance,” she said.
Without the law, male dominance will persist as current board members turn to golf buddies and others they know to join them at the top of the corporate structure.
“People tend to prefer people like themselves,” Norton said.
When he signed SB 826 into law in 2018, then-Gov. Jerry Brown noted that there have been “numerous objections to this bill and serious legal concerns that have been raised,” adding that he would not “minimize the potential flaws that indeed may prove fatal to its ultimate implementation.”
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William says
Here ya go, FWB
“Folie à deux (‘folly of two’, or ‘madness [shared] by two’), also known as shared psychosis or shared delusional disorder (SDD), is a psychiatric syndrome …”
Think Don Quixote and Sancho Panza tilting at windmills. In the case of the right-wingers, it’s called “folies a pleusirs” or folly of the many.
How do you explain the mass delusion of Trumpkins who believe the election was stolen despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary? Are you under that delusion as well?
It’s not just political opinion differences. The RNC calls 1/6 a “legitimate political discourse”. Are you buying that?
Whatever the faults of the Democrats, nothing they’ve ever done compares to the lunacy of the Republican Party and its voters. NOTHIING.
Beecee, Sonya and others are examples but there are millions around the country deluded as well. These 2 just give us a daily insight into the disorder. No facts make a difference for them. Yet, they firmly believe the lies. So backward.
With Fox ‘news’ and its harmful variants, Beecee bought the lie about the Durham investigation. Durham himself said it was overstated and misintepreted. But, you can’t unring that bell as they say.
Beecee will continue believing the lie even as Fox went silent immediately. It’s a sickness. And, that’s the Fox business model…put out lies, don’t correct and they will stick with the viewers even if if proven false. Think birthers.
This is the 21st century and with all of our information technology, people are more ignorant than ever. That’s fascinating. Yet, some in the evangelical community that don’t trust a video from yesterday believe stuff from 2000 years ago. Go figure.
The good news is that when ocean levels rise a foot or so, Florida will be underwater and that includes The Villages, that white community engaged in voter fraud. Oh, the humanity.
FWB says
Biological women or biological males who identify as women?
I can’t keep up with this bs.. how about a little help?
William says
Sure, FWB
When you are in a restroom, get down on your hands and knees and look under the stall door. If the person is standing, it’s a guy. If they are sitting, it’s a gal or a guy that just came from Taco Bell. You’ll know.
There. Fixed it for ya.
America's Most Helpful says
LOL. Or you can use a mirror on a telescoping pole like Sheldon.
William says
Speaking of the new James Webb Space Telescope, what if they can see so far into the universe that it goes around so we can see the back of our heads.
Hopefully, in the future, all public restrooms will be separate rooms with locked doors, not stalls like at Trader Joe’s or Starbuck’s. No large, shared space and shared “air”.
And, women will have to put the seat up when they’re done. It’s only right.
FWB says
I’m more interested in knowing what method they’ll determine if someone is female on a corporate board. Perhaps the same method you describe.
Liberals are retarded
William says
How can you say that with what the right wingers have been saying and doing besides the constant lying?
-Jewish lasers starting California fires.
-Pedophiles operating out of a pizza parlor.
-Kellyanne Conway and “alternative facts”.
-Everything that Trump says and Republicans believe.
-Everything is a conspiracy but the conspiracy they are doing such as the “alternate electors”.
It”s not just a few crackpots, FWB but a widespread pandemic of ignorance. Are you part of it?
I wish mental health professionals would do a public presser to explain the phenomena of millions of Republicans/Trumpkins/conservatives willingly believing the insane lies of Trump and creating a false reality for themselves.
And, you say liberals who deal in reality are retarted. That says more about you than liberals, FWB.
Are you vying to displace Beecee as the dumbest person posting here?
I’ll go dig up the letter I sent to the decaying Valley Press a couple years ago regarding mass delusions. It was prescient as to what we’ve watched occur over the last few years.
America's Most Squashed and Censored says
LOL. I volunteer to conduct and document in-depth physical inspections to assuage your concerns.
Tim Scott says
Hopefully the same method that should be in use everywhere: ask them.