Victims deserve justice, not political score settling
After 140 female legislators, staffers and lobbyists signed a shocking letter in 2017 denouncing a California Capitol culture where men “leveraged their power and positions to treat us however they like,” the Legislature had a #MeToo reckoning.
Talk of this toxic culture and the lackadaisical attitude toward it had simmered for years, so the resulting actions were long overdue.
Later that year, two assemblymen and a senator resigned from their seats in the wake of sexual-harassment allegations (which they denied). The Legislature hired legal counsel to investigate harassment claims and agreed to publicize any results, the Los Angeles Times reported. The governor signed a ban on “the common legal practice at the statehouse that allowed lawmakers to reach secret settlements with people they sexually harassed,” the newspaper added.