Ruling Allows Suit Challenging UC Regents

The state Court of Appeal has denied a petition filed last week by Gov. Pete Wilson and the University of California Board of Regents, clearing the way for a lawsuit filed by the ACLU to proceed.

Wilson and the regents had argued last month that the lawsuit, which alleges that the regents violated the state open meetings law when they decided to roll back affirmative action at UC last summer, should be dismissed because a 30-day statute of limitations had expired.

When a San Francisco Superior Court judge refused to dismiss the case on those grounds, lawyers for the governor appealed. Late Thursday, that appeal was denied.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the UC Santa Barbara Daily Nexus and one of its student journalists, alleges that the governor’s private telephone conversations with several regents before their historic meeting in July were in effect a “serial meeting” of the board. The Open Meetings Act requires that, with a few exceptions, the regents meet in public. The lawsuit seeks an injunction prohibiting the board from implementing its policy banning race and gender preferences in contracting, hiring and admissions. It also seeks a declaration nullifying the policy and asks that Wilson be required to release his telephone records, which he has refused to do, citing executive privilege.