SCA 5 (State Constitutional Amendment 5) is Senator Hernandez’ third attempt at allowing our all of schools (UC Cal State, Community Colleges, high school, etc.) to discriminate on sex, race, color, nation of origin, etc. His previous bills (SB185 and AB2047) both were vetoed by the sitting Governor at the time (Schwarzenegger, then Brown).

UPDATE:  3/17/2014  12:39pm - Assembly Speaker John Perez announced today that SCA 5 will not be progressing forward in the Assembly.  Chuck Page said, "That's right, our voices have been heard.  However, I will remain diligent in ensuring that this bill does not move forward, or end up as a "gut and amend" at the end of the session as Hernandez or others try to sneak it through." 

Chuck Page stated, “There is absolutely NO WAY that the opportunity for discrimination should be introduced into ANY part of our society, especially our colleges and universities. There are a number of criteria used for acceptance to public postsecondary schools, and merit needs to remain at the top of the list. I will remain opposed to SCA 5 or any other attempt to enable discrimination into our culture. We still have work to do to overcome personal and cultural prejudices, and that will never happen if we allow lawmakers to make laws encouraging it. Just Say NO to SCA 5 – I am!”

Note: the current District 28 Assemblyperson has voted YES on both of Hernandez’ similar bills. In fact, because Paul Fong served on committees that reviewed the bills before they reached the full Assembly, he actually voted YES on them a total of 4 times. Why?