< back
LAWSUIT FILED TO STOP NEGOTIATIONS ON PROPOSITION 187
A group of California taxpayers has brought suit against Gov. Gray Davis to halt the proposed mediation to determine the fate of Proposition 187. The initiative, which denies social services to illegal immigrants, was ratified in 1994, but has never been enforced.  Shortly after it was passed, a federal judge declared it unconstitutional.  Then Gov. Pete Wilson, a Republican, appealed the decision to the Ninth Circuit, but before the case was heard, Gov. Davis, a Democrat, was elected.  After debating whether to drop the appeal, Gov. Davis made the decision to have the case resolved by the Mediation Office of the Ninth Circuit.  

The taxpayer group, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, is not arguing on the merits of Prop. 187, but rather contends that the proposed mediation, which would be conducted in secret, violates the system of judicial review.  They argue that the constitutionality of the law, validly passed, should be decided in a public forum.

Gov. Davis recently said he would definitely not implement one provision of the law, which would prohibit illegal immigrant children from attending California public schools.   In 1982 the Supreme Court declared a similar law unconstitutional, but supporters of Prop. 187 want to challenge that ruling.