San Francisco Settles Lawsuit Brought by CFER & the ACR Project

The ACR Project and Californians for Equal Rights Foundation (“CFER”) are pleased to announce finalization of a settlement with San Francisco County over its participation in so-called “guaranteed income” programs that unlawfully chose beneficiaries based on race. CFER and the ACR Project challenged San Francisco’s programs in litigation* that paralleled CFER and the ACR Project’s challenge to Sacramento’s similar program.

Following in Sacramento’s footsteps, San Francisco has now settled its part of this dispute. As documented by the parties’ settlement, San Francisco has committed–for the various programs at issue–not to fund the program during the term of the settlement and not to renew those that have expired using the eligibility and prioritization criteria challenged.

San Francisco also agreed to pay $50,000.00 toward plaintiffs’ attorneys’ fees.

CFER Executive Director Wenyuan Wu explained: “All racial discrimination is wrong.  San Francisco never should have distributed taxpayer dollars based on race. Ending the programs doing so is a good result for the people of San Francisco and the people of California.”

ACR Project Executive Director Dan Morenoff added: “California and its subdivisions should not need reminding that racial discrimination is illegal. They should comply with American law, even when no one is watching.  But we are watching and–when they don’t–we will make sure that either voluntarily or because compelled by the Courts, America’s laws guarantying equal protection prevail.”

* – The action also challenges the State of California’s adopted and expanded version of one of these programs.