Will the Courts Soon Drive Illegal Aliens Out of Our Public Colleges?
By Peter Schrag
It’s always risky to read judicial tea leaves, but judging from last week’s oral arguments before the California Supreme Court, a majority of the justices may uphold the state law granting illegal immigrant graduates of California high schools in-state tuition at the state’s public colleges and universities. A decision is due within 90 days.
But it’s a shaky case, no matter how defensible the policy, and chances are that when it gets to the unfailingly conservative U.S. Supreme Court, the law will be overturned in a flash. That would be a sad outcome, not only for the hundreds of thousands of students involved, both in California and in the nine other states that have similar tuition policies, but for the economy and, more generally, for civil society at large.
Anti-gay Ads Launched Amid String of LGBT Youth Suicides
By Jorge Amaro
Equality California
In a desperate attempt to win the votes of the Latino community, on Friday the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), the anti-gay extremist group fervently focused on denying same-sex couples the right to marry, released a Spanish television ad attacking U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer for supporting the right for same-sex couples to marry.
The ad falsely argues that Latinos oppose the freedom to marry for same-sex couples and that Senator Boxer opposes comprehensive immigration reform. These allegations, however, are complete lies. The truth is that a majority of California’s Latinos now support basic rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people as well as the right to marry. Additionally, Senator Boxer, a leading champion of full equality for all, has long fought for comprehensive immigration reform.
Catholic Latinos Support Marriage Rights for Same-Sex Couples
California's Students Shortchanged in Final Budget Deal
By Robin Swanson
Education Coalition
On top of the astonishing $17 billion in cuts to schools imposed over the past two years, under the new budget agreement expected to be voted on by the legislature today, California’s students will receive $4.3 billion less than they are owed under Proposition 98, the minimum school funding guarantee. The budget agreement also fails to provide any new, stable revenue streams for schools.