Few
lawsuits after I-200: 'It seems to be working here' Few
lawsuits after I-200: 'It seems to be working here'
August 4, 2002
By Alex Fryer and Justin Mayo
Seattle Times staff reporter
Initiative 200 ordered public agencies to stop giving preferential treatment on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin. It effectively ended affirmative action by state and local governments in hiring, contracting and school admissions. The law, approved by 58 percent of the voters, allowed programs aimed at helping veterans, the disabled and seniors to continue. The measure also allowed the state to continue minority and women set-asides on public-works projects if mandated by a federal program.
The initiative has prompted fewer lawsuits than the landslide of litigation that officials in the state Attorney General's Office had once expected. In the most publicized case, the Seattle School District's continued use of race as a tiebreaker in some school assignments was challenged by a parents' group that claimed the policy violated I-200. A three-member panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, but then reversed itself in June, sending the issue to the state Supreme Court.
Two other lawsuits have been filed challenging the state's adherence to affirmative-action programs required by the federal Department of Transportation. "It seems to be working here. We've found general compliance," said Russell Brooks, an attorney with the Pacific Legal Foundation, a public-interest law foundation that supported I-200 and similar measures nationwide.
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