Yesterday the California Supreme Court unanimously ruled that it is constitutional for the City of Berkeley to require the Boy Scouts to comply with an antidiscrimination policy that prohibits discrimination against homosexuals. (Read the Court’s opinion in Evans v. City of Berkeley here.)

You might recall that the United States Supreme Court ruled in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale (2000) that the Boy Scouts could exclude homosexuals on the basis of First Amendment associational rights. (Read the US Supreme Court decision here.)

Following the Dale decision, numerous cities began to either terminate the Boy Scout’s use of public property or require them to agree to nondiscrimination policies.

Evans involved the Sea Scout’s (a Boy Scout affiliate) free use of a berthing facility at a city-owned marina. In a nutshell, the state Supreme Court ruled that requiring adoption of a nondiscrimination policy did not violate the Boy Scout’s First Amendment… Read More

The next few days should tell us how much legislative Republicans want to see Arnold Schwarzenegger re-elected.

The infrastructure bond currently being negotiated does not appear to meet the principles of fiscal conservatism that Tom McClintock outlined in January. But that bond, regardless of the policy specifics involved, is a key to the governor’s re-election. While Schwarzenegger can certainly be re-elected running a “taxes on steroids” campaign against Phil Angelides, the ability to tell voters he’s done something significant in terms of road, school and levee construction will make that task much easier.

So do Assembly Republicans protect the state’s fiscal situation and endanger Arnold’s re-election.? Or do they compromise on principle under the assumption that four years of Governor Angelides would be much more damaging?

My guess is that six Republicans in the Assembly compromise, just enough to get the bond on the ballot. The rest of the caucus gets to have it both ways. That’s one of the few advantages of life in the minority caucus.… Read More

As the election season heats up, the Oakland mayor’s race looks like it will be one of the most interesting election in the state.

On Wednesday, Ron Dellums made an aggressive move towards City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente’s support base by holding a rally in the Fruitvale district, a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood that De La Fuente has represented for 13 years. Dellums was not alone. Hispanic activist Delores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers, came to Oakland to tell residents to vote for her fellow socialist, Ron Dellums.

It was no coincidence that on same day De La Fuente announced that the United Farm Workers was endorsing him in the… Read More

Today and over the weekend, high-level nogotiations are taking place among the legislative leadership and the Governor – the focal point of these discussions – infrastructure investment. In January, the Governor unveiled plans for a massive $222 billion ‘strategic growth plan’ for California, and a central component of his plan – a $68 billion general obligation bond. The response to the Governor’s plan was mixed — Democrats, who love to spend money were tepid or even critical in their response, unsure how to react to a massive spending plan proposed by their political adversary – the Republican Governor. Republican reaction to the plan was also mixed – unsure of how to respond to such a large spending proposal from the top guy in their own party. I know from my personal meeting with three members of the Governor’s senior staff the day of the State-of-the-State "Build it" address — that the Governor was keenly aware that this kind of large-scale spending proposal would be uncomfortable for conservative lawmakers, and other Republicans… Read More

Today and over the weekend, high-level nogotiations are taking place among the legislative leadership and the Governor – the focal point of these discussions – infrastructure investment. In January, the Governor unveiled plans for a massive $222 billion ‘strategic growth plan’ for California, and a central component of his plan – a $68 billion general obligation bond. The response to the Governor’s plan was mixed — Democrats, who love to spend money were tepid or even critical in their response, unsure how to react to a massive spending plan proposed by their political adversary – the Republican Governor. Republican reaction to the plan was also mixed – unsure of how to respond to such a large spending proposal from the top guy in their own party. I know from my personal meeting with three members of the Governor’s senior staff the day of the State-of-the-State "Build it" address — that the Governor was keenly aware that this kind of large-scale spending proposal would be uncomfortable for conservative lawmakers, and other Republicans… Read More

No, its not the famous actor Laurence Olivier – he’s not with us anymore. But there is another Olivier running for California’s top spot – and this one is the former Mayor of Bellflower, Art Olivier (pictured). Today, Olivier announced his candidacy for the Libertarian Party nomination for Governor of California. Olivier is a pretty big deal with the Libertarians, I guess — apparently he was their party’s nominee for Vice President in the 2000 national elections sharing the ticket with Harry Browne, who recently passed away. Olivier, a husband and father of four, is the former Mayor of the City of Bellflower in Los Angeles County. In reading about his announcement, there are a lot of things he says that make a lot of sense. That said, in the United States, we pretty much have a two… Read More

USA Today Online is featuring an interesting article about "Comeback Kids" — referring to Members of Congress who leave the institution (for one reason or another) and then come back. One example, referenced in the story, is California Republican Congressman Dan Lungren, who left Congress when he was nominated to be State Treasurer in the ’90’s. While that didn’t work out, Lungren went on to be elected State Attorney General, and was the party’s ill-fated nominee for Governor against Gray Davis in 1998.

The article talks about two more Californians attempting their comebacks — former Congressman Brian Bilbray is running in the donnybrook to succeed the disgraced Randy Cunningham — and up in the Central Valley, former Congressman Pete McCloskey is in an uphill Republican primary against popular Representative Richard Pombo.… Read More

The legislature is in session as we speak — and does that mean there will be a vote tonight on putting a massive borrowing plan for infrastructure onto the June ballot? It’s not yet clear.

The Governor spent a few minutes (roughly four minutes) talking about how negotiations have been coming along. You can listen to his comments here.

That said, the first observation I had when listening to his remarks was the way that he refers to "the Republicans" in the third person throughout his comments. I’m sure that he means "legislative" Republicans versus legislative Democrats, given that he is a Republican himself.

Anyways, we’ll see what happens tonight. HOLD THE LINE, team.

_____________________________________________ UPDATE: My sources tell me there will not be a session tonight after all,… Read More