California’s ultraprogressive legislature is refusing to take no for an answer.

In 2020, it authorized a referendum—Proposition 16—that asked voters to strike this clause from the state constitution: “The state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting.”

If those words sound important, it’s because they are. They were put there in 1996, when California voters adopted Proposition 209—one of the nation’s earliest and most successful pushbacks against race-preferential admissions policies in higher education and other special preferences based on race, sex, or ethnicity.

As it turned out, California voters in 2020 agreed that the words were important. Prop. 16’s effort to repeal Prop. 209 failed spectacularly, with over 57 percent of voters rejecting the measure. And that defeat came despite repeal proponents outspending the opposition by more than 14 to one.