---
title: Court Strikes Down California Board Diversity Statute
description: AB 979 is actually the second of two California legislative measures designed to address board diversity issues. The first of these two measures was SB 826, the California board gender diversity statute. SB 826 is itself the subject of a separate legal challenge by taxpayer plaintiffs; the gender diversity litigation is awaiting decision following a bench trial.
---

[Test HubSpot Blog](https://blog.rtspecialty.com/test-hubspot-blog)

# [Court Strikes Down California Board Diversity Statute](https://blog.rtspecialty.com/test-hubspot-blog/court-strikes-down-california-board-diversity-statute)

 Written by [Billy Mccaw](https://blog.rtspecialty.com/test-hubspot-blog/author/billy-mccaw) | Apr 7, 2022, 2:29:53 PM

Over recent months, there has been a series of regulatory, legislative, and litigation measures and actions implemented to try to address perceived concerns about diversity in the corporate boardroom. Prominent among these measures was AB 979, the [California board diversity statute](https://www.dandodiary.com/2020/10/articles/corporate-governance/california-board-of-directors-diversity-bill-signed-into-law-challenged-by-lawsuit/) for “underrepresented communities.” This California legislative measure was the subject to a legal challenge seeking to prevent the California secretary of state from expending taxpayer funds to enforce the measure, which, the taxpayer plaintiffs claimed, violated the equal protection clause in the California state constitution. In an interesting and detailed April 1, 2022 opinion ([here](https://www.dandodiary.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/893/2022/04/Crest-v-Padilla-April-1-2022-order.pdf)), California Superior Court Judge [Terry A. Green](https://ballotpedia.org/Terry_A._Green#:~:text=Green%20is%20a%20judge%20of,and%20general%20election%20were%20canceled.), granted the taxpayers’ motion for summary judgment, striking down the legislation on equal protection ground.

[View full post](https://blog.rtspecialty.com/test-hubspot-blog/court-strikes-down-california-board-diversity-statute)

```json
{
  "@context" : "http://schema.org",
  "@type" : "BlogPosting",
  "author" : {
    "@type" : "Person",
    "name" : "Billy Mccaw"
  },
  "dateModified" : "2022-04-07T14:29:53.072Z",
  "datePublished" : "2022-04-07T14:29:53Z",
  "headline" : "Court Strikes Down California Board Diversity Statute",
  "image" : {
    "@type" : "ImageObject",
    "height" : 300,
    "url" : "https://6757467.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/6757467/RT%20Specialty/limosine.jpg",
    "width" : 300
  },
  "mainEntityOfPage" : "https://blog.rtspecialty.com/test-hubspot-blog/court-strikes-down-california-board-diversity-statute",
  "publisher" : {
    "@type" : "Organization",
    "logo" : {
      "@type" : "ImageObject",
      "height" : 60,
      "url" : "/hs/hsstatic/content_shared_assets/static-1.4092/img/default-amp-logo.png",
      "width" : 60
    },
    "name" : "Test HubSpot Blog"
  }
}
```