Sacramento, California - California Governor Gavin Newsom on Monday approved a measure to study reparations eligibility requirements while vetoing other bills designed to address ongoing injustice.

Newsom signed SB 437 authorizing up to $6 million for California State University to study options for confirming an individual's status as a descendant of an enslaved person, in order to determine eligibility for reparations programs.

The governor also signed AB 935 to require the Civil Rights Department and the Department of Education to collect anonymized data to determine how complaints are handled, and SB 464 to expand employer-employee demographic data reporting to the Civil Rights Department.

On the same day, he shot down several other measures aimed at redressing the state's legacy of anti-Black discrimination:

• AB 7, which would have authorized public and private colleges to give priority admissions to descendants of enslaved people.
• AB 57, which would have set aside a portion of the Home Purchase Assistance Funds for descendants of enslaved people who are first-time homebuyers.
  
• AB 62, which would have provided a pathway to redress for families whose property was taken via race-based uses of eminent domain.
• AB 742, which would have prioritized descendants of enslaved people when issuing professional licenses.
• AB 766, which would have required racial equity analyses for executive branch agencies.

The five bills were part of the California Legislative Black Caucus' Road to Repair priority package.

"The Governor and I have done incredible work together across many issue areas… But this is beyond disappointing and we cannot stop pushing for what our people deserve. Especially in this moment," California Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, lead sponsor of the college admissions bill, posted on X.

Newsom's selective support for racial justice measures has drawn criticism from reparations activists.

The Coalition for a Just and Equitable California released a statement opposing Newsom's signing of the SB 437 study bill.

"This bill is a step backward, not forward. It delays, distracts, and undermines the hard-won progress of California's Reparations movement," the group said.

"The Reparations Task Force already rejected more study, having spent years consulting experts and genealogists who confirmed the state already has the tools needed to verify lineage. California does not need to spend three to five more years studying what has already been proven."

"Lawmakers could act now to deliver real, direct repair – cash payments, land, debt relief, and wealth restitution – but they are choosing not to. They are using process to avoid justice."

Newsom last week signed SB 518, authorizing the creation of a Bureau for Descendants of American Slavery within the state's Civil Rights Department.

State lawmakers last year moved to block legislation to establish such an agency, which was one of over 115 policy recommendations in the California Reparations Task Force's June 2023 final report.