AB412 would establish the California Commission on Human Rights, consisting of 17 members appointed from both the State Legislature and the public. This advisory commission would be required to identify and evaluate California’s protection of human rights, including as “defined, enumerated, or set forth by, but not limited to” the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The Assembly passed AB412 on September 2, 2021, by a vote of 68-0. We have assigned minuses to the ayes because human rights are natural, individual, and unalienable endowments from God, not positive grants by government subject to redefinition. The fundamental civil rights and liberties of the American people are protected by the U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights and 14th Amendment. According to Article VI, Section 2, only the U.S. Constitution and the laws “made in Pursuance thereof,” as well as all treaties made “under the authority of the United States,” are to be the “supreme Law of the Land.”