Overview

• The governor rejected a bill to let colleges prioritize applicants descended from enslaved people, calling the measure unnecessary because institutions can already set such preferences.
• He vetoed a plan to reserve 10% of California’s first-time homebuyer assistance for descendants, warning an ancestry-based set‑aside could pose legal risks and threaten access to federal mortgage markets.
• Newsom also nixed a proposal to have the state Civil Rights Department adjudicate compensation for racially motivated eminent-domain seizures, saying the agency lacks the expertise, and he vetoed a licensing fast‑track bill due to resource concerns.
• On the approval side, he signed $6 million for a California State University study to verify descendant status and earlier signed SB 518 establishing a Bureau for Descendants of American Slavery to certify eligibility for future programs.
• Reparations advocates criticized the approvals as insufficient or delaying true redress, while legal scholars differed on whether an ancestry‑based admissions preference could survive likely court challenges under Prop. 209 and recent Supreme Court rulings.