Backers of an initiative to eliminate affirmative action programs in Colorado advanced one more step today toward the November 2008 ballot.
The state’s Initiative Title Setting Review Board approved the language that would appear on the ballot after a two-hour debate.
The proposed initiative would amend the state constitution to prohibit the government from “granting preferential treatment to any individual or group on the basis of sex, race, color, ethnicity or national origin.”
The measure covers all levels of government, including the state, cities, counties, special districts and public universities. It covers public education, employment and contracts.
Richard Westfall, lawyer for the sponsors, said the effort to eliminate programs offering preferential treatment to certain groups was simply a way to end forms of government-sponsored discrimination.
Edward Ramey, lawyer for opponents, called the measure a “classic case of log-rolling” because it yokes the effort to ban “reverse discrimination” to an existing ban on discrimination.
Ramey has a week to ask the board to reconsider its decision. Further legal challenges could come before the sponsors can begin gathering the 76,047 valid signatures of Colorado voters needed to get on the ballot.
Staff writer Mark P. Couch can be reached at 303-954-1794 or mcouch@denverpost.com.
