So we’ve reached a point in this country where nothing — nothing — the radical left does surprises me, anymore. I suspect you feel the same way. And when we get to the no-longer-Golden State, all bets on rationality are off. Consider the following insane example:

The California State Assembly is considering a Democrat-backed bill that would require judges to use sentencing in criminal cases to “rectify racial bias” in the state’s criminal justice system as a whole.

AB 852 passed the State Assembly in May and is currently in committee in the State Senate. While the bill notes that existing state law already allows defendants to challenge their sentences based on perceived racial bias, the bill requires judges in effect to atone for past racial bias in the California criminal judicial system by imposing more lenient sentences on Black Americans.

The bill was introduced in February by State Rep. Reggie Jones-Sawyer (D-South Los Angeles) and is intended as part of the “reparations” package recently proposed by a state panel to the legislature.

AB 852, as introduced, Jones-Sawyer. Sentencing: bias.

Under existig [California] law, a conviction or sentence is unlawfully imposed on the basis of race, ethnicity, or national origin if the defendant proves, among other things, that the defendant was charged or convicted of a more serious offense than defendants of other races, ethnicities, or national origins, or received a longer or more severe sentence, and the evidence establishes that the prosecution more frequently sought or obtained convictions for more serious offenses against people who share the defendant’s race, ethnicity, or national origin, as specified, or if a longer or more severe sentence was more frequently imposed on defendants of a particular race, ethnicity, or national origin, as specified.

This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to rectify racial bias, as specified. The bill would require courts, whenever they have discretion to determine a sentence, to consider the disparate impact on historically disenfranchised and system-impacted populations.

The bill would add a section to the Penal Code of California requiring courts to take into account how “historically persecuted minorities” are affected differently than others.

It is the intent of the Legislature to rectify the racial bias that has historically permeated our criminal justice system as documented by the California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans.

Whenever the court has discretion to determine the appropriate sentence according to relevant statutes and the sentencing rules of the Judicial Council, the court presiding over a criminal matter shall consider the disparate impact on historically disenfranchised and system-impacted populations.

Two words: Judicial reparations.

This latest radical-leftist insanity makes no more sense than financial reparations. Moreover, assuming the legislation becomes California state law, it doesn’t take Jonathan Turley or Alan Dershowitz to figure out that the state’s court system will soon thereafter become inundated with challenges to criminal sentencing of Black Americans, as the saying goes, like nobody’s business.

In addition, such a law would likely exist in perpetuity in California, resulting in harsher sentences for white defendants — “forever.” Again, I’m no Jonathan Turley or Alan Dershowitz but I don’t see how AB 852 doesn’t violate the Equal Protection Clause guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Priorities, California-Style

As as reported by my colleague Jennifer Van Laar on Tuesday, California Democrat state legislators blocked a bill that would have made human trafficking of a minor a “serious felony.”

The obscene contrast in priorities between Democrat legislators blocking legislation that would make sex trafficking of children a serious felony, yet going all in on legislation to require blatant racism within the California criminal justice system is as profound as it is disgusting. While abhorrent, as I said at the top, it’s hardly a shock.

Speaking of trafficking minors, as I reported on Tuesday, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody is demanding that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg explain the alleged high volume of human trafficking across Facebook, Instagram, and other Meta platforms — some 60 percent of all online human trafficking — after a recent report revealed that pedophiles are using the metaverse to sexually exploit children.

Prediction: Zuck wiggles out of the allegations in 3… 2… 1…

The Bottom Line

Is it any wonder why more than seven out of 10 Americans believe this country is on the wrong track?

While many among the 74 percent who believe America is headed in the wrong direction based primarily on the disastrous actions of Joe Biden and congressional Democrats, a perversion exists at Democrat-controlled state and municipal levels, as well.

And one need look no further than the no-longer Golden State for ample proof.