Over the weekend, Governor Jerry Brown signed SB 826 into law. The legislation, authored by Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson, requires publicly traded companies to include women on its boards of directors.
Professor Jacobs’ comments on the legal concerns about the bill from the report are below. You can find the full report by KCRA’s Marlei Martinez with the five things you need to know about the legislation here.
Equal protection issues
“That’s the problem here. It mentions sex explicitly, and so it would be a high bar for the state to be able to argue that it’s okay to favor women over men.”
Interstate commerce issues
“What’s going on with this law is that it applies to corporations that have a principal place of business here, even if they’re incorporated in another state.”