Overview

• The vetoed measure, AB 7, would have let California colleges give an admissions edge to applicants who could establish direct lineage to people subjected to American slavery.
• In his memo, Newsom wrote that institutions already can decide whether to adopt such preferences, encouraging campuses to evaluate if and how they might implement them.
• Newsom also rejected proposals to reserve a portion of first-time homebuyer loans for descendants of enslaved people and to guarantee investigations of historic, racially motivated property seizures.
• He approved $6 million for a California State University study on methods to verify descendant status, and he has recently backed the creation of a state Bureau for Descendants of American Slavery.
• The decision drew criticism from bill author Isaac Bryan, while the debate features legal concerns over affirmative action bans and verification hurdles, as federal pressure on admissions policies includes a Trump administration compact and a $1 billion demand targeting UCLA.