Civ. Code, § 53.7 · Part 2. PERSONAL RIGHTS
Civ. Code, § 53.7
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) A statute, ordinance, or other state or local rule, regulation, or enactment shall not deny a minority group political structure equal protection of the law by altering, restructuring, or reordering the policy decisionmaking process in a manner that burdens the ability of members of the minority group to effect the enactment of future legislation, solely with respect to a matter that inures primarily to the benefit of, or is primarily of interest to, one or more minority groups.
(b) (1) A member of a minority group, as defined in paragraph (2), may bring a civil action challenging the validity of a statute, ordinance, or other state or local rule, regulation, or enactment, pursuant to subdivision (a).
(2) For purposes of this section, “minority group” means a group of persons who share in common any race, ethnicity, nationality, or sexual orientation.
(c) A statute, ordinance, or other state or local rule, regulation, or enactment shall be determined valid in an action brought pursuant to this section, only upon a showing by the government that the burden imposed by the statute, ordinance, or other state or local rule, regulation, or enactment satisfies both of the following criteria:
(1) The burden is necessary to serve a compelling government interest.
(2) The burden is no greater than necessary to serve the compelling government interest.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Added by Stats. 2014, Ch. 912, Sec. 2. (AB 2646) Effective January 1, 2015.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
- Official file
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=53.7.
- Text hash
- sha256 91a680754047b247fa1368c60b3eea3df0f19edb5b70a9cf9b494437f1a07402
- Composed by
- compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.