On Monday (4-15), San Francisco Superior Court Judge William Cahill allowed a lawsuit to proceed against California Gov. Pete Wilson and University of California regents. The defendants allegedly violated the state’s meeting law when they voted last July to dismantle affirmative action in the UC system. Lawyers for the UC Santa Barbara Daily Nexus claim that Wilson secretly gathered “yes” votes over the telephone prior to the vote at the July 20 meeting, which leads groups such as the ACLU to charge that the meeting’s decision should be nullified. A state law, the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act, requires public officials, including UC regents, to conduct most meetings in public.
Judge Cahill rejected Wilson’s claim that the lawsuit was not filed in time, noting that the 30-day time period cannot hold if the government conceals its action from the public.
