Wilson to Push Affirmative Action Case

Gov. Pete Wilson, rebuffed by the California Supreme Court, announced Thursday that he will go to trial in his legal bid to gut state affirmative action programs.

Wilson made his decision after the high court Thursday refused his attempt to avoid a trial in his lawsuit to dismantle five programs that as governor he is responsible for administering. The programs are designed to attract more minorities and women to state government and to ensure that firms owned by these groups receive some state contracts.

The court rejected Wilson’s arguments that the suit could proceed immediately to the appellate courts for a ruling without the need for trial in a lower court.

In deciding to go to trial rather than drop the suit, Wilson has opened the door to a potentially prolonged and costly legal battle that may be fought in large part at taxpayers’ expense.

“It’s a shame that the people of California will suffer this delay in overturning these unjust [affirmative action] preferences when the outcome seems so clear,” Wilson said.

The governor filed the lawsuit in August while campaigning for the Republican nomination for president.

His targets include a program that asks state agencies to try to award 15% of their contracts to minority-owned firms and 5% to women. Many minority- and women-owned companies consider the program critical to their continued growth, but some other contractors complain they are unfairly denied state business because of them.

The governor needs a ruling by an appellate court to dismantle the programs because they were created by the Legislature. He had hoped to avoid a trial altogether, but the California Supreme Court let stand a lower court order denying Wilson expedited legal proceedings in the case.

The governor will be represented free by the Pacific Legal Foundation, a nonprofit legal advocacy group in Sacramento that goes to court on behalf of conservative causes.

But the handful of state agencies Wilson has sued will have to defend the programs at taxpayers’ expense.

The agencies, including the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, the Department of General Services and the State Personnel Board, will have to hire outside lawyers or rely on their in-house attorneys in court. Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren has removed his office from the case, citing a potential conflict in opposing Wilson in court.

Mark Rosenbaum, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, pledged to call Wilson as “our first witness” in the trial.

“If the governor wants to put taxpayer money into it, that is his decision, but it is going to be an expensive and time-consuming trial,” Rosenbaum said. “It is going to make the O. J. Simpson case look like a small-claims matter.”

Legal scholars say that at least some of the programs Wilson is attacking have been made legally vulnerable by recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions. The ACLU and legal advocacy groups representing women and minorities have been fighting Wilson’s suit, and some expected him to drop it once he withdrew from the presidential race.

Daniel M. Kolkey, Wilson’s legal affairs secretary, said the state agencies Wilson has sued have been under no obligation to defend the programs because the court fights so far have revolved around the procedural matter of where the case would be heard.

Although groups in favor of affirmative action probably will try to prolong the case, the Pacific Legal Foundation will try to keep it as short and as inexpensive as possible, said Anthony Caso, director of litigation for the conservative group.

“The truth will probably lie somewhere in between,” he said.