A California judge has ruled in favor of the Berkeley Unified School District’s use of race in assigning students to school. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Winifred Y. Smith threw out a challenge to the district’s policy this month, ruling in a lawsuit brought against the district in October by the Pacific Legal Foundation, which argued that consideration of race was illegal under the state’s Proposition 206. That measure, approved by voters in 1996, prohibits both discrimination and preference on the basis of race and sex by government agencies, including public education. The judge said in her ruling that the assignment plans upheld do not consider any individual student’s race. The plaintiffs, who were represented by the Pacific Legal Foundation, of Sacramento, said they would appeal.
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