Race-based Affirmative Action Supreme Court Decision Politico In 1996, voters in California approved Proposition 209, a ballot initiative that made the state the first in the country to ban race-based affirmative action in public universities. The proposition’s chief architect was Ward Connerly, a California businessman who championed the initiative as a member of the University of California’s Board of Regents. In the years since Prop 209’s passage, Connerly — now 84 years old — has risen to prominence as one of the most powerful and out-spoken opponents of affirmative action [...]
