I am aware of two pending challenges to the constitutionality of California's female director quota mandate.  One, Crest v. Padilla, is pending in the Superior Court in Los Angeles.  The other, Meland v. Padilla, is pending in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California.  The Superior Court in Crest has found that the plaintiff has standing while the U.S. District Court in Meland has reached the opposite conclusion.   The plaintiff has appealed that decision to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, but an opinion has yet to be issued.

The trial in Crest had been scheduled to occur this June, but has been rescheduled to start on October 25, 2021.   Whatever the outcome of that case, the losing party can be expected to appeal.  Thus, it is likely to be a very long time until there is a "final" decision by the courts.

A Classic Book About Blight

Although the current pandemic has not inclined me to read books devoted to human plagues, I recently started reading a classic book about blight that I first encountered four decades ago when I was planning to become a botanist.  This book, first published in 1940, is devoted to murrains afflicting food crops and animals, including potatoes, grapes, wheat, salmon and cattle.  Who knew, for example, that Jethro Tull (the Berkshire agriculturist, not the Blackpool rock band) discovered a preventative for wheat bunt after accidentally sowing wheat seeds salvaged from a ship that had foundered at sea?  Although the book is somewhat dated, it is nonetheless a fascinating chronicle of man's battles with blight, rusts, bunts, and all manner of other mycological infestations.  The book is somewhat hard to find, but a joy to read, even if the subject is grim.  The book? The Advance of The Fungi by E.C. Large.  For those interested in the positive contributions of fungi, I recommend the much more recent Entangled Life  by Merlin Sheldrake.