A similar bill was killed in 1997 in the wake of affirmative-action rollbacks in California. Indeed, affirmative action has been hotly debated for years, but it was brought to a crescendo in 1996, when California voters approved Proposition 209. That made California the first state to put the brakes on affirmative action, barring preferential treatment and discrimination in public hiring, contracting and education. When similar efforts were tried in Colorado, the Capitol became the center of protests and rallies with people arguing on both sides. Vandenberg says he believes those protests may begin again.
Discrimination is repugnant, no matter what direction it goes in.
Valery Pech agrees. She's the wife of Randy Pech, president of Colorado Springs-based Adarand Constructors. That victory, however, was cut short in September when a three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld revisions that the Clinton administration made to the program. The U.S. Supreme Court in March agreed to hear the case. When you give preferential treatment to one group, you will discriminate against another.